


Hope's Peak America

by LunaVA



Series: Hope's Peak America Trilogy [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa, Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Gen, Murder Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2017-02-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 20:14:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 65,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7655095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunaVA/pseuds/LunaVA
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In an alternate reality, Junko's death stopped a majority of the tragedy from happening, and Hope's Peak Academy reopened its doors, with the main focus being on an overseas institute. After it's completion, a teenage girl was selected among 15 other students to attend this new school as the Ultimate Lucky Student. But once the 16 students are gathered inside, it's finally revealed that the Tragedy was not yet over...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

In Japan, there’s an academy dedicated to the talent of youth and the ability to research that talent. That academy is called Hope’s Peak, and that academy was the start of this entire mess. 

You see, I attend Hope’s Peak America, a school that’s derived from the Academy, but easier to access if you live in the states. Only a few get scouted, and I only got in because I got lucky and was picked from a lottery. It’s the first class for the American School, which should make me the luckiest girl ever, right?

Well, that’s a long story. However, I feel like I should introduce myself. My name is Luna Thates, the Ultimate Lucky Student. The people who I attended class with were… well, all very interesting people. But we’ll get to them eventually.

Let me start from the very beginning, when I first walked to the college. It was just like I saw online, a rather large, brownish building around 4 stories high. Shorter than the image I saw, but still fairly impressive. The only problem is, I don’t remember anything after that. I know stuff did happen there, but I can’t remember any of it. It’s like the memories of the school were poured out of my head. 

When I finally came to, I was in some sort of chem lab, with 15 other students that I assume I were supposed to be my classmates. Sitting next to me was a slightly younger girl, who was dressed in a Red Shirt, a Blue Skirt, and several other clothing items that were Red, White, and Blue. Her hair was a bit redder than most, and even her skin looked like it was sunburned thoroughly.

“Maaaaan, what the hell is happening here?” She yelled to the rest of the classroom. 

Acknowledging the yell, a man dressed in a complete police uniform managed to get right to the desk of where the teacher was supposed to be, but was surprisingly absent. The policeman gave a cough, and everyone turned to look in his direction.

“It seems like you’re all awake, finally. I’ve already checked for exits, and it seems like there is no way out.” The policeman stated loudly, as if trying to give a formal address, “So while we’re here, we might as well introduce ourselves. Since I’m already here, I’ll introduce myself first. My name is Dakota Stantz, and I came to Hope’s Peak Academy as the Ultimate Officer. I hope that we all stay safe.”

Everyone looked puzzled as to why there was a police officer at a college, but it seemed as if he was just as old as we were. Silence grown a bit longer after Dakota was done talking, until finally a man in a clergy uniform stood up.

“My Children,” The character started, acting as calm as he could in this situation, “I am Enoch Breston, the Ultimate Pastor. I hope we can all see the light of god through these troubled times.”

“Light of God? Don’t try to rub you religious bullshit into my life, I don’t need to grow any more oppressed than I already am!” Some girl yelled from the very back of the room. 

Sadly, this girl didn’t really look like anyone normal. She wore what looked like literal rags, had long black hair, and wore glasses that barely covered half her face. There was absolutely no way I could even tell what her talent was supposed to be. 

“I’m sorry, my lamb, I do not mean to intrude on your religious stylings. I am merely trying to hand out hope.” Enoch responded, still super calmly. 

“Well, since I’m already standing, My name is Violet Parat, and I came here to become the Ultimate Social Justice Warrior.” She claimed boldly, and that’s when it clicked into place.

She was a complete and total moron. I was going to say just that and introduce myself, when someone said the exact same thing I was thinking, although the voice wasn’t just singular.

“Hmph, such bold words coming from such a complete moron.” Another girl with long, black hair and a very preppy look snooted. 

This girl kind of looked like someone you’d see at a pep assembly, throwing several other people straight into a trash can. However, it seems like she wasn’t alone. The girl sitting next to her looked almost exactly the same.

“My name is Valentina Venzor, the Ultimate Psychologist. This is my twin sister Valerie, who happens to be the Ultimate Impersonator.” She snooted, again.

“Sis, I wanted to introduce myself by doing impressions of everyone in this room!” The girl I can only assume was Valerie complained. 

“Now, now, Valerie, you’ll get to do so at a later time.”

After that, the classroom fell silent again. I decided to take a quick look around. From what I noticed, there were a lot of interesting characters. One of the guys was dressed in a full on tuxedo and top hat, messing around with a deck of cards. Another guy was throwing a football into the air and catching it as it fell down, but the person who caught my eye was a girl, who was scribbling a bunch of stuff down on a piece of paper. I watched her scribble all that stuff down, like she was taking notes of the introductions as our classmates said them. After watching her for awhile, someone dressed like a medieval knight stood up and swung his sword at the ceiling.

“Valiant Heroes!” he called, still focusing on his sword, “Oh, actually, before I say anything, I should take off this helmet.” 

He sheathed his sword and placed it upon the table, before lifting up his helmet to reveal short, blonde hair and a very feminine voice. I realized that this person wasn’t actually a guy at all, but rather a super famous cosplayer that I didn’t realize was attending Hope’s Peak America. 

“Sorry about that. I am Avalon Leroux, the Ultimate LARPer.” She valiantly stated. 

It seemed as if she was waiting applause from someone who knew who she was, but no one did. The only thing that she got was from the man in a tuxedo and top hat, which was just a question.

“Pick a card, and I’ll assure that someone will know you.” He questioned comfortably, as if he was very confident in his status. But it’s not like nobody knew him. That was Harold Whodoni, the most popular teenage magician in Las Vegas. He had been scouted for Hope’s Peak Academy, but turned it down in order to come here.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not exactly in the mood for your tricks, Harold.” Avalon replied, dismissing his trick by waving her hand back and forth.

“Well yippie-ki-yay motherfuckers! Do y’all got no respect for the best magician in our country?” The girl who sat next to me suddenly shouted, “Ah, y’all probably want me to introduce myself, I reckon. Y’all can call me Maggie Merc, the Ultimate Patriot!”

God, she was so loud I could barely stand it, especially with that texan accent. I might eventually get used to it, but as of now, I don’t think I can. After Maggie yelled loudly, the entire class went silent again. I looked back, it seemed as if the girl was still writing down notes based on the introductions, which still puzzled me. 

I watched her for a bit longer, until eventually she got hit in the head with a football.

“Damn! Sorry, dude, I didn’t expect the pig skin to fly that far. I’m Jonathan Kraemer, the Ultimate Quarterback.” The guy stated.

It seemed obvious he was supposed to be a quarterback, since he was super muscular and had a football jersey on. However, he did seem really apologetic for not catching the football as the girl clutched her head.

“No, it’s fine. I am Lydia Baranovich, the Ultimate Translator. I wasn’t paying attention, was my bad.” The girl responded, still clutching her head. 

Ultimate Translator? That would definitely explain all the writing she was doing, she must’ve been writing everything we’ve been saying down in other languages. It makes sense, since she’s supposed to be the best in america.

That just left a rather tall girl wearing a lot of makeup, a petite girl with shorter hair and wearing boyish clothes, a guy dressed in a full-on excavator costume, and a guy with a fedora and a whip. Couldn’t be a younger indiana jones, but if I had to guess, I’d think that guy is the Ultimate…

“Benjamin Right, Ultimate Archaeologist. Are… we done with introductions yet? It got a bit quiet again.” He called, right before I was going to guess the same thing. 

He was kind of cute in a sort of dirt-ish way, although now was not the time to be thinking about that.

“I… uhm… My name is Cole Laver. I’ve been called the Ultimate Miner.” The guy in the excavator costume mentioned shyly, twirling his thumbs around. 

“So that just leaves the Ultimate Drag Queen, the Ultimate Voice Actress, the Ultimate Zookeeper, and the Ultimate Lucky Student. Anyone care to volunteer?” Dakota asked the audience. The Venzor twins weren’t even paying attention anymore, it seemed like they were just talking about something, but I decided to ignore them.

Wait, did he just say Ultimate Drag Queen?

“Greetings, lovers. My name is Morgan Trent, the Ultimate Drag Queen. I hope we get along very well…” The tall… feminine looking man said with a overbearing tone of voice.

I mean, I was shocked that he sounded so ambiguous, it was almost too difficult to understand what gender he was if Dakota never said ‘Ultimate Drag Queen’. After his introduction, the only other girl aside from me that hadn’t introduced herself yet stood up.

“H-hello… my name is Jasmine Benitz… I’m known a-as the Ultimate Voice Actress.” The girl shyly spoke, quietly.

At that moment, I found the connection. Jasmine had voiced in several anime dubs, and almost all of them got insanely popular insanely quickly. Hard to believe she was in college. That just left the person who was feeding the snake in the back of the room next to the Ultimate Social Justice Warrior.

“Quinn!” Dakota yelled to the back of the class, as if the guy wasn’t paying attention. Sure enough, he wasn’t.

“OH, RIGHT, SORRY DAKOTA! My name is Quinn Levich, the Ultimate Zookeeper. Nice to meet ya!” He called from the back of the room, but then went right back to feeding the snake.

Everyone was so interesting with their talents, it’s a shame I only got here because of a lottery ticket, but I had to stand up.

“Yeah, hey. My name is Luna. Luna Thates. I’m only here because of the lottery thing, I don’t really have a talent.” I spoke, somewhat stuttering my words.

“Whaaaat? No talent, Miss? I reckon that you may not last long here at all!” Maggie spoke to me in that loud texan accent of hers, trying to climb her hand around my back as if she was trying to friendship-bond with me.

“Maggie, stop. We have to figure out the more important things first, such as why we’re locked in.” Dakota first called out to Maggie, then the class itself.

“Well, my lambs, I suggest we bow on our knees and pray to the lord almighty. Join me in prayer to our wonderful lord that we escape this predicament…” Enoch said with a calm tone, as his voice usually was.

“Hmph, I told you, Pastor Asshat, I don’t pray to religions that force it down my throat! What are you, sexist?” Violet responded in a very angry tone.

“This trick is definitely getting out of hand! But allow me to make all your worries disappear!” Harold called from where he was sitting.

“How about we all calm down!” Another voice, unknown to us called out from behind the door to the chem lab.

“Wait, I thought we all introduced ourselves already. Jasmine, are you tricking us?” Dakota yelled.

“W-what? W-why would it be me?!?” Jasmine screamed, trying to defend herself.

“Don’t play coy, you’re the ultimate voice actress! You’re the only one who can do it!”

“No, no, I can do it too! Why does everyone forget about Valerie?” Valerie cried, as if no one seemed to give a shit.

“No, no, it was all me!” The voice called again.

Suddenly, the doors slammed open, revealing a robotic bear colored black and white.

“It was only Lil’ Ol’ Monokuma!” The bear yelled.

The moment he entered the room, Quinn came rushing to him from the back.

“Wow! A real bear! I’ve never seen one in the wild before, this is so rare!” Quinn claimed, too excited for his own good.

“I’m not a real bear, I’m a stuffed animal! Now then, are we all settled in? Getting to know each other?” Monokuma asked of all of us.

We were all stunned. A talking bear, using some kind of robotic device to talk, there is no way this can end well.

“Well now, I guess I should explain why you’re here. You all lost your school memories! Isn’t that fun? It’s like a real mystery now! I feel like I’ve done this before…”

“Fiend! I shan't halt my fares until you give us back our school memories!” Avalon yelled at the top of her lungs, although she put the mask back on, so there wasn’t really any way to tell her voice was feminine.

“Dude, that’s not cool! I had a championship match coming up!” Jonathan complained, getting rather worked up.

“Well, if you do want to know what happened, there is a way to get your memories back…” Monokuma claimed, although I have no idea if any of us want to trust a bear that magically appeared in this school.

“Well now, I reckon you tell us how we get our mem’ries back, ya stinkin’ bear!” Maggie called out.

“It’s beeeeeeeeeary simple… you just have to kill each other!” Monokuma stated, excitedly.

Everyone in the room immediately froze. Kill each other? There’s no way ANY of us would do that! I mean, we may have just met and all, but… holy shit, how the hell can any of us think murder is even REMOTELY okay? It’s absolutely insane!

“This is absolutely insane!” I called out, “There’s no fucking way any of us will kill each other!”

“Well, you don’t have to kill each other… but if you don’t, you won’t get your school memories back! It’s a pretty simple bargain, you all stay here until one of you kills someone else… and gets away with it!” Monokuma laughed. 

“Gets away with it? What, are you implying that women can’t commit murder, you sexist bear?” Violet angrily yelled.

“No, no. If you kill someone, you get time to investigate the murder, and then we go into the class trial! If you’re found guilty, you’ll face punishment, but if the blackened is not voted, everyone else will die except for the one who murdered!” Monokuma kept laughing, like a robotic whale on crack.

“As long as you all come to me, I can wash away your sins through the eyes of our lord, allowing anyone who dies to go see our savior in heaven…” Enoch immediately said to calm everyone down.

“Hey, Enoch, can you just like.. Piss off, already?” Jonathan refuted. 

“Language like that can cause a lot of trouble in the eyes of the holy spirit, I assure you, young one.” 

“Now, now, you have time to pray later, since it’s time to present the first motive!” Monokuma raised his voice to all of us.

“W-wait, a m-motive already?” Cole stuttered, obviously terrified about what was happening.

“I ain’t going to town on no horse-ridin’ shenanigans!” Maggie yelled.

It was actually getting harder and harder to understand her since her accent continued to strengthen the angrier she got. I more or less decided to ignore her.

“Alright, bear. Show us the motive, and I promise you no one is going to kill anyone else.” I calmly stated, staring him down with every inch of my stimuli.

“Here’s the motive!” Monokuma laughed, slamming a box down onto the table in front of us. 

At first, it just looked like an ordinary box, but when we actually looked inside… it was all books. 16 different books, for 16 different people. There were the names of each of us written on the front on a sticky note. There were several different types. Romance novels, comedies, murder mysteries… I moved them all around until I found the one with my name on it. 

I took the book out of the box and went back to my seat, and read the title. The book itself was titled ‘The Easiest Way to Deal with Depression’ by Monokuma… wait, did Monokuma write all these books himself? I looked up to ask the question, but he had already left, leaving a note on the board. The board gave directions to our dorm rooms, and the door to the chem lab was already open. I tried my hardest to calm down, but the pain was too much. Valerie and Valentina already left, along with Cole, Quinn, Morgan, Jasmine, and Avalon. I looked around the room to see who else was there.

Harold had suddenly disappeared, and apparently no one saw him go out of the room, but he is a magician, so I didn’t pay any attention to that. Enoch remained at his desk, intently focused on the book with his name attached to it. Violet was sitting at the very back, whispering silently to her book. Lydia was trying to write down everything she read, I assume in a different language. Ben and Jonathan were talking about what exactly just happened and why they can’t continue on without being skeptical. Dakota just slammed his book on the table and let out a really loud scream. 

Everyone in the room quickly turned around, and Violet suddenly ran out of the room immediately after the scream was heard. I mean, she’s a complete asshole, so it’s no surprise she did. Everyone else ran over to Dakota.

“Dakota, what’s going on?” Ben asked him, in a quick manner.

“These books… they’re… like… a personal weakness we can’t overcome… how did that bear find out?” Dakota whimpered.

Seeing an officer of the law whimper like that, I never thought I would see it happen. To see Dakota immediately fall into despair like that… it must be something truly terrible.

Dakota immediately ran out of the room and escaped to his dormitory. Everyone was shocked by his sudden actions, except for Jonathan, like he was expecting something like that… or the fact that he wasn’t moving at all.

“My son, are you troubled?” Enoch asked Jonathan, trying to be a good pastor.

“L….leave me alone, you clergy freak!” Jonathan yelled, also running out of the classroom.

Surprised at the actions. Enoch let out a long sigh and left the classroom. At that moment, it was just Ben, Lydia, and myself who remained in the chem lab. Lydia herself was super focused on translating the book until she came across a line that suddenly freaked her out. She ran out of the room, leaving the book behind. I stopped, and thought about taking a quick peek to see what was going on with everyone, but Ben was already looking into it.

“Dude, that’s like an invasion of privacy.” I told Ben bluntly. 

“Well, she did leave the book here. I was only going to take it back, but I did wonder what it was about. You should honestly have a look at this.” Ben replied in a very calm manner.

I took a quick peak into the book, and then it suddenly clicked why everyone was so freaked out. These weren’t just any books. They were books about us, and our personal lives. I took one glance at the page that was open, and suddenly stepped into the desk behind me.

It was at that moment Lydia’s father… shot her mom.

The rest of the pages in the book were blank. Everything leading up to that were just random words and phrases that don’t really have any significance to me. But they might have significance to her.

“Her father… what kind of family did she have?” Ben stammered, at a lost for words.

“It might be time we head to the dorms. We should meet back up here in the morning.” I stated, hoping that he’d agree.

“Sounds like a good enough plan. I’ll read what’s in my book, you can read what's in yours.”

With that said, Ben grabbed Lydia’s book and walked back to the dorms. I followed shortly after. While walking, I passed by a few other rooms, laundry, cafeteria, and a student store. It seemed pretty normal to what most colleges have. 

After a few minutes, I made it back to my dorm room. It was a really plain room, with green wallpaper, iron plated windows like there were throughout the college, a desk, and a bed. I lunged myself over the bed and started crying into my pillow.

How did I let something like this go over my head? There’s no way I would’ve let this happen. But I was stuck now, stuck in this killing game. After several minutes of enraged cries, I finally calmed down enough to read the book with my name on it. What was inside, not even I was able to predict.

All the random words and phrases weren’t just random words and phrases. They were the names of friends, family, pets, and phrases of things I liked. They were all things that were supposed to make me feel pleasant, until it was mentioned.

My sister’s suicide.

I threw the book as hard as I could at the wall above my desk, but all that did was land on top of the desk and caused a small, book-sized dent in the wall.

Just before I entered Hopes Peak, my sister was going through a really long and hard depression after her boyfriend of 5 years broke up with her. She hadn’t slept in 5 days, when she suddenly went crazy and hung herself. The news story broke out, but only in our small town, no one else knew about it. My parents and I still mourn the news to this day. But for it to be in a book, like it was some kind of story to be sold, even if that story was complete nonsense, was insulting.

I let out a scream into my pillow. I couldn’t stand to be reminded of that. It’s a part of my past I would really like to forget. But, if it was used as a motive to this extreme, then there’s no way I could avoid thinking about what Monokuma’s truly planning. 

However, tonight wasn’t one of those nights that I could lie awake and think about whatever, I had to sleep all of this insanity off and get ready for my meeting with Ben to discuss what’s happening. Once I calmed my mind, I fell quickly asleep.

End of Day 1


	2. Beginning of Day 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 2 of the Hope's Peak America College Murder Game

The next morning, I was awoken to the sound of that blasted bear, Monokuma.

“Good morning, everyone! The current time is 8:00 am! Please have a wonderful day.” Monokuma announced over the monitor.

I didn’t notice them at first, but I realized that every room in this school had some sort of security camera and monitor, probably installed so we couldn’t escape our own reality. If we tried, Monokuma might accuse us of breaking the rules. Which reminded me of the fact that I didn’t actually read the rules. There was a rulebook on my desk, which I assume everyone has, so I picked it up and started reading.

1\. Students must stay within the school.  
2\. ‘Nighttime’ is from from 10 pm to 7 am. Students must lock their doors if they are in their rooms by this time.  
3\. You can explore Hope’s Peak America with some restrictions.  
4\. If any student kills another student, they will become ‘The Blackened’ and graduate unless proven guilty in a class trial.  
5\. Violence against Headmaster Monokuma is forbidden unless agreed upon by both parties.  
6\. As the Blackened, you are only allowed to kill up to 2 students at a time.  
7\. Additional rules may be added as deemed necessary.

I shut the book the moment I finished reading the rules. I couldn’t think of any one reason anyone would have to kill others, other than whatever is written in everyone else's books. All I know is that my book’s motive was my sister’s suicide, and Lydia’s book’s motive was her father killing her mom. I didn’t know anything else about anyone, but if we get to know each other, there’s a possibility that we can work together and survive this killing game as a group.

With that impossible thought, I grabbed my book and walked down to the Chem Lab. However, when I got to the front door, there was a note. The note said that Ben was going to head to the Cafeteria instead, since that was where most of the students were gathered anyway. I let out a brief sigh and made my way to the cafeteria. Sadly, I wasn’t the only person who managed to be late to the meeting, since on my way there I managed to run into Violet, the Ultimate Social Justice Warrior.

“OW,” She cried, “Damn you dirty rotten cis-scum piece of... “

“Sorry, Violet. I must’ve not seen you there.” I replied, hoping my apologetic words would calm her down a bit.

Luckily for me, they actually did. Either that, or she was just relieved it was me and not someone like Dakota.

“Oh, Luna. Hmpf, didn’t realize it was you. Well, whatever. It’s not like you want to talk to some asshole like myself.” She claimed, trying to make herself feel better about being hated.

“Huh? Asshole like yourself? I mean, I don’t really know you, but I didn’t think of you that way.” I replied once more, trying to be a bit more friendly.

“Well, sadly that’s how everyone views Social Justice Warriors. Therefore I have to act like one just to keep up everyone’s image of them.”

“... Was that your motive? That you don’t want to be the Ultimate Social Justice Warrior?”

“No… I actually wanted to be known as the Ultimate Activist, but apparently I joined the wrong group of people. All they ended up doing was attacking men with false rape accusations and blaming society for problems they caused themselves… not actual issues… But that doesn’t matter, I’m in a hurry. Leave me alone.”

Violet then ran off behind me, I assume to go back to her dorm. But… to be mislabelled like that because of how people view you, that sounds horrendous. But if it’s not her motive, then I wonder what it could’ve been? No matter, I didn’t have the time to continue thinking about it. I decided to start walking faster towards the Cafeteria to make up for lost time.

However, when I got to the Cafeteria, all I heard was super loud arguing from all corners of the room. When I peaked inside, the only two people I didn’t see where Violet, who I just witnessed running back to her room, and Cole, who apparently just doesn’t like loud noises. Although, it seemed that there were only two people arguing about something, Dakota and Maggie. I joined the group mid-conversation, so they didn’t exactly notice me at first, so they continued to argue over something I wasn’t entirely sure about.

“Maggie, for the last time, it is my duty to uphold the laws of this school, the rulebook clearly states that we must stay within the school!” Dakota yelled, in an authoritative tone.

“What in tarnation does that mean? It’s simple, I’m fixin’ to escape this damn school, I done told y’all beforehand, that Monokuma is a damn polecat!” Maggie yelled in her unbelievably loud texan accent, which is when I understood that the only reason Dakota was arguing with her was because no one else understood what the hell she was even trying to say.

“Can you at least try to speak normal english, Yosemite Sam?” Dakota stammered angrily, also somewhat confident in his creative ability.

“Who you done a-callin’ Yosemite Sam? I swear, Ah’mma lick you in the face, ya damn cluck!” Maggie screamed in response, unleashing all her anger out on Dakota.

“Did I arrive at a bad time?” I called out, kind of quietly when there was a break in the conversation.

Both Dakota and Maggie finally stopped with their arguments and sat back down at opposite ends of the table. Maggie was obviously pissed off, since she had sat down facing the opposite direction of everyone else.

“Luna, glad you finally arrived. Since Cole and Violet aren’t coming, we can finally start the meeting.” Ben greeted me, trying to give me a warm welcome in light of recent events. 

I paced myself over to the table and grabbed a seat between Jasmine and Enoch. Everyone else had already began eating breakfast, seemingly a lot faster than most people are used to.

“Alright, it’s time we discuss the issue we’re in. It seems we can’t escape the school, and have motives to kill one of our classmates. It should say in the back that these will be revealed in 2 days since we received this notebook, which means we have 1 day before a possible killing occurs. In order to prevent that, I suggest we say what is written in our books.” Dakota said with a very intense, but caring look on his face.

The room fell silent. Everyone except Johnathan stopped eating for a moment and looked at their books. No one felt it was necessary to say anything.

“Hey, bro, how about you go first? You told me before we came into this school, so your motive would probably be a good starting point.” Quinn spoke up, talking directly towards Dakota.

It seemed as if Dakota and Quinn were close friends even before coming to this school, which was actually pretty cool. None of my friends had any ultimate talents, but neither did I, I just got lucky. 

“Good suggestion, Quinn,” Dakota replied, looking a lot more confident, “I shall explain. The motive Monokuma wrote down for me… was about my grandfather being caught by communists during the vietnam war and tortured before eventually dying a painful death. That event is why I’m in the training program to become an officer of the law, so I can avenge my grandfather…”

After remembering the event, it seemed like Dakota had tears coming from his eyes, like he was remembering a painful experience. Maggie still refused to look at him due to what had happened earlier, but Dakota managed to pressure through it.

“Anyone else?” He coughed.

The cafeteria was still silent. It seemed like no one else wanted to say anything. However, it was at that moment I noticed something odd.

“Guys, wasn’t Valentina here a minute ago?” I asked the group. 

“Oh, yes. But she, like, went to the bathroom since she was totally done with all of you.” Valerie replied to my question in the most irritating Valley Girl accent ever.

“Well, as long as we are here, my lambs, I suppose you all can join me for the morning prayer.” Enoch said, thinking he was breaking the silence. 

“I m-may be c-christian, but n-now is not the t-time for a m-morning prayer, Enoch.” Jasmine suddenly replied, but immediately kept her voice down afterwards.

“Our honor must’ve been revoked, my fellow warriors. I recommend we slay the beast known as Monokuma before continuing henceforth!” Avalon called out, her voice still muffled underneath her mask.

“Cretins! You all amuse the great Whodoni, but the next trick must be worth discussing.” Harold spoke up from his oddly formed book.

“Harold, is that a… hexagon book?” I asked him, hoping to get a not-so-weird response.

“The hexagon is but one of many illusions cast upon this world! Such as the motive written within it… I must never share its secrets!” Harold stood up, yelling. 

“Hold on, your motive is written in… a hexagonal book? That’s… actually kind of fitting.” Dakota claimed, amused by the fact that Harold’s a magician with a hexagonal book.

“I t-think Harold has a p-point…” Jasmine spoke up again, this time with a slightly louder voice.

“Why, yes, darlings, I suppose we should move on to a more pressing matter. Like, what exactly am I even going to wear? I only have male clothes in my room!” Morgan yelled in that ambiguous voice of his.

“Well, if no one else is willing to share their motives… what’s left to discuss?” Dakota asked the group.

I didn’t exactly want all the suspicion laid onto me if the trial at all happened, so I spoke up.

“2 years ago… my sister committed suicide…” I said, slower, trying to push the words out of my mouth.

The rest of the students fell silent, like I had accidentally dropped a major bombshell on them. Even Maggie turned to face the rest of the group because of the motive Monokuma gave me. 

“Wow… I’m sorry, Luna.” Ben stated, trying to comfort me.

“I mean, it’s not like no one else here hasn’t dealt with that sort of thing before, right?” I quickly added, trying to ease the ominous atmosphere I accidentally created.

Everyone went silent again. It appears that they haven’t. Valerie, Johnathan, and Quinn all got up and left the Cafeteria because of the uneasy feeling. I watched them exit the room before I spoke up once more to apologize.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cause such an issue…” I mentioned, in the best apologetic voice I could pull at that time. 

“Well, this should be a lesson to all of us. We all have different stories, but we can’t let that drag us down! We need to make a pact; no one sitting here is going to murder anyone else.” Dakota said, attempting to solidify his own position as the leader.

“I w-will not k-kill anyone!” Jasmine tried yelling with all her might, but her voice was still too soft to do so. 

“I shall follow this agreement with valor!” Avalon followed, pulling her mask up so her voice isn’t as muffled.

“Not even the mercy of our lord would ever accept someone like myself murdering another human.” Enoch concurred, ending the chain of agreements. 

Everyone but Ben, Dakota, Morgan, Lydia, Enoch, and myself all then got up to leave. Except for Harold, who just suddenly disappeared like he usually does. I noticed that Lydia hasn’t actually said a word this entire time, so I decided to see what she thought.

“Hey, Lydia, what do you think about this situation?” I tried asking her politely, to which she finally rose her head and spoke.

“I think there are several people here we can’t trust already. Cole and Violet never came, Harold is suspicious, and Maggie was arguing with Dakota since she first arrived. It’s best the six of us stuck together for awhile.” She spoke, then immediately went back to writing down the conversation in what seemed like Latin.

“Wise words, Lydia. Although I may not agree with Enoch’s views, I can’t deny the possibility that one of us may die if we split up.” Ben agreed, in a rather calming but trustful tone.

“I am not one to shove my religion down others throats if they do not wish to hear the truth. But I shall remain truthful during this ordeal.” Enoch stated, also agreeing with Lydia’s statement.

“Darlings, I shall never kill any of you.” Morgan said in a rather hushed tone.

“I guess we’re all in agreement. This is basically our own alliance.” I confirmed, since everyone is in agreement with Lydia’s statement.

“Then it’s settled. We’ll all meet up here every morning from now on. Let’s not dilly dally, we have work to do.” Dakota stated confidently.

“Agreed!” We all shouted simultaneously. 

After the meeting was over, we all went about our own business. I headed down to the Laundry room in an attempt to wash off some of my clothes from yesterday. However, when I got there, I heard some voices from inside the room. It sounded like a conversation between Harold and Violet. I leaned in a bit closer to try and hear them a bit better.

“...So can you please leave me alone?” said a feminine voice, I assume it was Violet, annoyed by Harold for doing something while she was attempting laundry.

“I cannot, for you see, you would be perfect for my next act! I call it, the wedding crasher. I pick a random person from the audience, and create a wax figurine of them immediately! It is truly a miracle of magic, madam.” Harold said all pervy-like, which I can only assume is why Violet seemed upset and annoyed with him.

“All magic is faked anyway, it’s not like it’ll mean anything.” Violet responded, with a slightly calmed down tone.

“All magic is fake? Why, not all magic. Please allow me to whisper a spell into your ear and you shall see what I mean…” Harold continued, still attempting to flirt with her in some weird, magician-y way.

“Ugh, just leave me alone, Harold! I don’t give a shit about you OR your magic!” Violet yelled, extremely angry that her private time was interrupted by some guy flirting with her.

“Fine, but I am going to warn you, if you do not agree to my offer, terrible things will happen, that I can assure you of.”

I turned my head and peeked into the Laundry room. It seemed like Harold had disappeared without actually leaving the room… again. I know magicians aren’t supposed to reveal their secrets, but this guy was too good.

I took a deep breath and walked in, trying to be oblivious to what had just happened.

“Harold, I thought I told you to leave me-” Violet started before turning around to notice it was me, and not Harold.

“Not the perverted magician. I can assure you.” I said, trying to cheer her up.

“Oh, so you were eavesdropping on that conversation, were you? I guess you heard how he ‘cursed’ me?” Violet responded, with an angry tone in her voice.

“Harold doesn’t seem like the killer type, just some silly, perverted Las Vegas magician. All of them are like that.” 

“Well then, I guess I need to begin to petition Las Vegas online! To a computer, somewhere!”

Violet yelled, running out of the room with her fist held high. It didn’t really make much sense, but I was kind of glad she was finally calming down from how she first acted. I continued to do my laundry when suddenly, Harold came back from wherever the hell he went off too.

“Madame, I am looking for that fine assistant I need for my new act! This wondrous spell shall make her mine!” Harold called to me from beyond… some curtains. 

I walked over to said curtains and threw them open, shocking Harold as he didn’t exactly want to be discovered.

“AUGH! THE LIGHT OF DESPAIR HAS AFFECTED MY SOUL ONCE MORE!” He cried as he was revealed to myself.

“Cut the disappearing act shit, man. What the hell are you doing to Violet?” I asked, angrily.

I mean, I don’t really mind if he told me honestly what the hell was going on, because I had a lot of questions. First of all, what the hell was he doing, how does he disappear, and what’s written in his book. 

“Violet? Do you mean the Ultimate SJW? I merely intend to make her my assistant for a new trick, it’s nothing ridiculous… but if you want to know more, I cannot divulge such secrets to you, for you are not a magician…” He responded in a serious, but ominous tone.

“... The more you talk about a new assistant, the more I think something happened to your old one…” I said to myself, but loud enough so he would overhear me.

In a state of panic, he whipped out his magic wand and immediately disappeared from view within a puff of smoke. I immediately looked behind the curtain, and there wasn’t any secret passageways or trap doors, so I still have no idea how he’s doing it. But I guess I can’t be too suspicious of the Ultimate Magician, I mean, it is possible that he’s using actual magic… except that would be insanely ridiculous. This is real life, not some made up fantastical world. Although, I can’t really be too sure of that.

Either way, I finally managed to finish doing my laundry and decided to make my way back to my dorms before I realized that there was one place I haven’t checked. The Student Store. I know there wouldn’t really be much use for it since it seems none of us have any money, but I figured that I might as well check it out. So, I decided to walk by the store when I noticed Cole looking into the window. 

“Hey, Cole, we missed you at breakfast,” I called out, but he kept peering through the window of the store like something was wrong, “Uhh… dude, something up?”

“Hush… there’s… something in there…” He spoke finally, in an intense and quivering voice.

I looked at him, then looked through the window, but saw nothing. I decided to ignore the warning and open the door, but immediately Cole pulled me back and the door slammed in my face.

“Dude, what the hell?” I angrily yelled, in a very pissed off tone. 

“It was about to attack you, I cannot let you be h-harmed…” Cole replied, in the same intense but quivering tone. 

I didn’t even see anything in the room, but I guess I wouldn’t actually be able to get in there if Cole wouldn’t let me get harmed, whatever that meant. I sighed and walked away from the store, walking back to my dorm before getting stopped by the one person I didn’t actually expect to be stopped by - Lydia. 

“Excuse me, Luna…” She said, tugging on my shoulder in a hushed tone.

“Oh, Lydia. Didn’t think you’d be stopping me.” I responded, legitimately surprised.

“It’s nothing important, but I did want to show you something I found… kind of interesting. Some of the words in my book were written in another language… but I was able to decipher some of it.”

“Huh? Do you think they’re important somehow?” 

I looked down at the book. I noticed all sorts of notes and words scribbled all over the pages, some in other languages, most in english.

“The most important one reads ‘Death on the 3rd day’. It was originally written in latin as ‘tertio die mortis amet’, which loosely translates to ‘ On the third day of boring’, but given Monokuma’s theories, there are other words that don’t make sense until you put them together. The word ‘dauða’ is written several times, which is the icelandic word for death, and ‘shkola’ is written multiple times in russian, meaning ‘school’. There’s one long line where all three of these phrases are written one after the other, which leads to a translation of ‘death on the third day of boring school’.” Lydia stated, using her ultimate ability in order to deduce what was going to happen.

“Wait, so someone is going to die either tonight or tomorrow?” I asked, stunned. 

I wasn’t ready to accept any of us could kill anyone else. I also wasn’t able to believe that Monokuma would be able to predict something like that. But then… he confirmed my suspicions.

“So you figured it out, huh? What a wonderful person worthy of being known as the Ultimate Translator!” Monokuma claimed, seemingly jumping up out of nowhere.

“Monokuma?” Lydia said, sounding super surprised at the sudden appearance of Monokuma.

“Now, now, I just came to congratulate you! You solved one part of the mystery!” 

“How do you even know someone is going to die?” I asked, bluntly. 

I still wasn’t sure if Monokuma was honestly able to answer that simple yes or no question, but the answer I got was already very surprising.

“Because one of you is a traitor.” Monokuma replied.

He suddenly vanished. I heard about this ‘traitor’ deal from what had happened in japan, but I couldn’t believe it would happen a second time. Or at all. Lydia and I were completely shocked about this sudden reveal. After a few minutes, I caught myself and let out a sigh, then looked towards the clock in the hallway. It was nearly 10 pm. I turned around to say night to Lydia, but she had already went back to her own dorm room, so I did the same. 

Once I walked in, I immediately slammed my face on the bed, disgusted with myself. I wasn’t about to let another killing happen, but unfortunately, it seems like I wouldn’t be able to stop it.

Since it was just going to happen anyway.

End of Day 2


	3. Beginning of Day 3

Suddenly, as if trying to manipulate my perception of time, the Morning announcement went off. I almost forgot that there was a monitor in my room, but there was no real way to ignore it. So I got my clothes on, and walked down to the cafeteria. 

Until I noticed that Cole wasn’t by the student store. I thought about it, then decided that it shouldn’t actually be harmful to at least take a look inside, so that’s what I did. I opened the door and instinctively looked around. Cole wasn’t anywhere near me, so it seems I was safe for now. I walked inside and what I saw…

...was basically nothing. Nothing at all. I mean, nothing I should be worried about. There were several items stacked from bottom to top, some harmful, others useless. There wasn’t really much there, so I’m not sure why Cole tried keeping me out in the first place. I walked out when suddenly, I ran into the devil.

“L-Luna? Why did you walk in there?? Are you okay? Are you hurt? T-T-This is not good, n-not good at all!” Cole screamed, panicking like a wolf who lost a kill to another wolf.

“Dude, there’s nothing in there.” I replied earnestly. 

There was legitimately nothing in there. Either that, or there’s something Cole isn’t telling us. Any of us. However, I don’t think that’s an important issue. I just now realized that there’s supposed to be a killing happening today, so I need to head straight to the cafeteria.

“Cole, why not tell everyone else about what you keep seeing in the store? They’re all waiting in the cafeteria…” I asked, politely. 

I think I accidentally touched a nerve or something, because Cole immediately just snapped.

“D-don’t treat me like a g-g-god damn c-child! I’m not c-crazy! I know w-what I saw! Y-you can’t tell me w-what I see!! I-I’ll prove to e-everyone in t-t-that cafet-teria that… that… that… there is a MONSTER living in our m-midst, and i-it’s hiding in the s-student s-store!” Cole screamed, as if the sound travelled across the entire hallway, then ran off to the cafeteria. 

I have no idea what I said that made him react that way, but I took a deep breath and pressed onto the Cafeteria where everyone was supposed to be waiting. Once I got there, I noticed that not everyone had joined up. Violet, Valentina, Morgan, and Dakota were late. It was weird, since Dakota was there before everyone else yesterday.

But just when I thought it was weird, Dakota walked into the cafeteria, completely worry free.

“Good morning, everyone! I hope that today we can settle this mystery and finally escape!” Dakota stated as he entered the room and sat down in the same spot he sat in yesterday.

“Greetings, my Lamb.” Enoch greeted Dakota, also worry free.

“So can y’all done start up this here meeting or not?” Maggie greeted Dakota, but in her own unique way.

“Now hold off on that, Maggie. Morgan, Valentina, and Violet haven’t arrived yet.” Ben replied, calmly as ever.

The next person to enter the cafeteria was Morgan, who was actually in a full on school girl sailor outfit, like he just walked out of a slice of life anime. Not like it mattered, because he was one of the few guys here who could pull it off.

“Darlings, you shall not need to await my arrival any longer, for I have arrived!” Morgan strongly projected throughout the cafeteria, like an actor entering the stage.

“Who died and told you to dress like THAT?” Valerie yelled, smirking the entire time.

“Excuse you, but I had this imported directly from Japan before even coming to this school.” Morgan yelled back, a bit more forceful than anticipated.

“Well then, shall I chant the magical spell of discussion?” Harold chanted, looming over the table and being downright creepy.

“Valentina and Violet aren’t here, man.” Johnathan replied.

“Weird, Cole isn’t here either. He was running off in this direction…” I noted, when all of a sudden, a piercing scream was heard from right next to us.

Everyone was stunned, no one could figure out what had happened, or whose voice it was. We couldn’t even remember where the sound came from. For a good minute or so, no one was able to say anything at all. But just at the right moment, one of the least likely members of our group to speak up, did.

“It came from the Laundry room.” Lydia proclaimed. 

Once she said those words, Ben, Dakota, Enoch, Lydia, Jasmine, Avalon, and I all ran straight to the laundry room. The others there were still in a state of shock from the ear-piercing scream. Outside of the laundry room, Cole stood there, frozen half to death. I gulped loudly, scared of what I think is going to happen. Slowly, I paced myself towards the laundry room. Cole tried to stop me, but his hand was going in the wrong direction, so he couldn’t knock me down.

Once I walked into the Laundry room, my heart nearly stopped. It felt like all the blood had drained from my head. I couldn’t even fathom what lay right in front of me. It was… the dead body of Violet Parat, laying in front of some washing machines in cold blood. 

I needed to scream, but the words wouldn’t come out of my mouth. No, not just words. Nothing came out of my mouth. It looked like my jaw dropped, but in truth, it was me trying to scream. When Dakota and Benjamin walked into the room and saw the body, the truth slammed into me like a train running towards me at max speed, but I was tied to a pole in the middle of the tracks, unable to move. Someone killed Violet.

Immediately after the blood begin to pour back into my brain, the monitor in the laundry room lit up. Once again, it was Monokuma.

“A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time has passed, the remaining participants will be put into a classroom and discuss who the killer is!” Monokuma spoke through the monitor in a nonchalant way, almost like he dodged the question.

During the announcement, everyone but Cole and Valerie had entered the room, disgusted by the sight and state of Violet.

“V-V-Violet?!” Screamed Jasmine in a super high pitch.

“Her body… has it gone to heaven already?” Enoch cried out.

“Papa John's!” Morgan shrieked.

“A Victim Henceforth? How Outrageous!” Avalon screamed within her suit of armor, not breaking character at all.

“Keep calm everyone, I’m sure we can figure out who did this to Violet…” Dakota yelled in an attempt to calm everyone down. 

“Well, I reckon that Dakota done did it, and he’s done fixin’ to do it again!” Maggie cried out in anger.

After everyone finished reacting, half of them ran out of the room, leaving myself, Avalon, Enoch, Dakota, Ben, Lydia, Quinn, and I to deal with the scene. I finally snapped out of my shock, and apparently so did Cole, as he was walking into the room. Then, out of nowhere, Monokuma popped up.

“Wow! So the first victim is the crazy chick? I didn’t see that coming!” Monokuma claimed, riddled with excitement.

“Bastard, how did you know a killing was going to happen?” I yelled, straight into Monokuma’s face.

“Well, I actually didn’t! I just figured someone was going to die sooner or later. That book was nothing but conjecture.” Monokuma laughed, nearly driving everyone mad.

“N-Nothing but conjecture?” Lydia cried out, shocked at Monokuma’s reaction.

“Did you come to give us something, or are you just going to stand there and mock us?” Dakota said, rather assertively. 

“Right, today I present… the Monokuma file!” The bear said excitedly, like he was bouncing up and down on a 140 mph roller coaster.

“Monokuma file?” I asked, but before he could answer, Monokuma quickly disappeared.

I picked up the file, within it held information about the victim. It had the time of death, which was around 5:30 in the morning, the cause of death, which was a sharp stab in the heart, and… nothing else. There was nothing else written in the file aside from those two things.

“So I think we can assume that Violet was doing really early morning laundry before she was killed… but why the hell would anyone wake up that early just to do laundry?” Quinn complained, not like the idea was any less ridiculous than he thought.

Although, he did have a point. Why did she go do laundry before the morning announcements? Seems like we won’t be able to figure out anything if we don’t investigate the area.

“I think we should find out as much as we can about this death as possible. Ben, Dakota, Avalon, you all stay with me. Quinn, you and Lydia should investigate Violet’s dorm. Enoch, check in with some of the others in the cafeteria, and maybe check it out, see if the killer left any clues there.” I said, in a stern and serious voice that couldn’t be taken in any different way. This situation was dire. We had to figure out what the hell happened.

Once everyone agreed, we all went to our posts. First thing I did, is walk up and try to investigate the body. I was super grossed out, but I couldn’t do anything else. After trying to calm myself, I bent down on one knee and turned towards Violet.

Looking over the dead body of someone I called a friend, a few things became a bit clearer. For starters, the hole in her chest was around 10 millimeters in diameter, poking right through the heart, and straight through her body, although it looked like it was recovering, somehow. I decided to overlook that part and continue one when I noticed a weird part. After moving the body back slightly, I noticed that there was no blood on the washing machine behind her, even though there was on the top. 

“Where did this blood come from? If she was killed sitting down, there’s no reason for the blood to be missing on the door to the machine…” Ben speculated, inconclusive on the evidence.

“Speaking of which… what’s up with the sparkles in her hair?” I asked, curious as to how they got there. 

I tried to remember, and the last time I had ran into Violet in the Laundry Room, her hair was spotless. It doesn’t make sense for her to have them in her hair so suddenly.

I sighed, and finally decided to move on. I checked her palm, which was slightly shut. There was no signs of any weaponry around, almost like the killer attempted to hide the evidence after the murder was done. Although, since Violet was the victim, it’s not like she had any weapons to defend herself with. I checked elsewhere, and only noticed a bottle of empty chemicals lying on the top, of a far away washing machine. I had no idea how that chemical bottle got from the chem lab to here, but I figured out pretty quickly why it was empty.

“SHIT!” Dakota yelled, like he accidentally did something stupid.

Which was accurate, considering he just spilled the chemicals onto the floor. However, something weird happened when the chemicals were spilled. Almost like science-y disney magic crap, the chemicals created a clue - footprints. Somehow, the chemicals were detecting the footprints of everyone who stepped into the laundry room that day. Over by the door, many footprints were seen, probably of everyone who had seen the body. By the body, there were four sets of footprints. Two of them were Ben and mine, but the other two… were patterned in a weird way.

“Huh? Did I… screw up and find a clue somehow?” Dakota shrugged, confused about the whole ordeal.

“Yeah, actually. It seems like Violet and the killer were involved in some sort of scuffle.” I replied hastily, still checking the footprints.

“What a valiant effort! Thwarting her killer, it’s almost like something out of Camelot!” Avalon explained in a weird, kind of Avalon-ish way.

But Avalon did make a point, Violet did seem to have a scuffle with her killer. Maybe it was supposed to be the other way around? Or maybe she was trying to stop her killer? But that wouldn’t explain the lack of weapons in the room. This case just got more and more confusing by the second.

“Hey, guys, I think I found something!” Ben suddenly called from the other side of the room.

The three of us walked over to where Ben was standing and noticed that Ben was right. He did find something, The same sparkling particles we had originally found in Violet’s hair.

“Why would Violet need to go behind the curtain?” Ben asked the three of us, curiously.

“Maybe she wasn’t as brave as we thought, and hid beneath the curtains!” Avalon stated confidently.

“No… I don’t think that’s it,” I replied, looking at the space behind the curtain, “I don’t think Violet had these in her hair until after she got killed.”

“Huh? Thwarting my theories, are we? Very Well! I shall prove you wrong, commoner!” 

Commoner? Huh. Guess Avalon does have a weird ego issue we didn’t actually know about.

“Earlier in my travels, I walked to the cafeteria. During my personal rendezvous, I saw a girl running into the laundry room, with shiny white sparkles in her hair! Which I would very much enjoy having in mine.” Avalon remembered, acting completely girly even though she still sounded like a guy.

“Wait, why the hell didn’t you bring this up earlier?” Dakota complained.

“Maybe she was running away from her killer? Or maybe she did something, and she tried to run away from that?” I asked rhetorically, trying to understand her own predicament.

“No maiden can run from a fight!” Avalon called, raising her sword to the ceiling again.

...I ended up ignoring her. After investigating the laundry room, I decided it would be best to check out other areas. I waved goodbye to all the people in there, and started walking over to the dorm rooms, when I saw Cole standing by the Student Store. I figured I had time, so I walked over to him and decided to see if he knew anything.

“BETRAYAL!” He screamed as I poked him on the shoulder.

“Geez, no reason to be rude…” I complained, but tried to lighten up so I could continue attempting to ask him questions.

“S-she was here… she tried to go in… s-she almost died… just for a ruler…” Cole stuttered, obviously scared.

I thought that what he said wasn’t important enough, so I backed away and started heading towards her room, before he grabbed by collar and yelled at me with a menacing voice…

“SMOKE! SMOKE AROSE FROM THE LAUNDRY ROOM! 5:27! SMOOOOKE!”

I threw his arm off of my collar and ran straight to Violet’s room, nearly out of breath. I had no idea what the fuck was wrong with Cole, but I couldn’t think about that. There were other problems I had to deal with. Once I finally made it to the dorms, I noticed that Lydia and Quinn were waiting outside. 

“Door’s locked.” Lydia claimed, pointing towards the door in a disappointed voice. 

“UGH, this is all your fault! You claimed we should investigate her room, but we can’t get into her room!” Quinn yelled, really irritated.

I wiggled my hand in a motion to emphasize that they needed to step back, before I slammed my foot into the door and split it in half. Then, Monokuma came back to yell at me again.

“No, no, no! You aren’t supposed to break school property!” Monokuma yelled, really angrily, “If you wanted to open the door, you could’ve just asked me!”

“What would be the point of asking you, Monokuma? So you can make sick jokes and claim we don’t know what we’re doing just because you know otherwise?” I exclaimed, holding in most of my anger.

Monokuma nearly exploded in anger, but left as quickly as he arrived. There was no telling what that bear was doing. However, before we entered that room, we heard loud footsteps coming down the hallway. We thought it was Avalon due to the intensity of the footsteps, but it turned out to only be Enoch.

“I have grave news, my lambs,” Enoch starting, out of breath, but trying to remain calm, “I noticed Avalon in the Cafeteria at 5:45 this morning, but sadly could not make her read Peter 1-3, which reads… ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope…’”

“Yeah, Great, Enoch, but that has absolutely no meaning in this circumstance. What happened after that?” I interrupted before he could finish his verse.

“Oh, we left the cafeteria and went back to our dorms, but we didn’t hear anything in the Laundry Room. If there was a murder and I didn’t know…”

I patted Enoch on the shoulder, which must’ve been weird to him. Enoch ran back to the cafeteria, and we marched into Violet’s dorm. 

Let me tell you something about this room. It’s too organized. Fliers everywhere, journals, diaries, it’s like a hoarders paradise. However, there were a few things out of place. I had to look around a bit, but I couldn’t find anything worth note except for her book, which was laying on the top of the table in the middle of her room, but I felt like I need to save that for later.

“Hey, Lydia, you find anything?” I asked, hoping to acquire new information.

“Actually, yeah. There’s a soap box on the table, and it feels like it’s half empty.” She replied, quicker than I thought she would.

Maybe she had grown used to everyone already, which was weird since she has only been here for 2 or so days. Speaking of, how does someone get halfway through a soap box in only 2 days? That doesn’t seem likely.

“Also, next to the soap box, there’s a wet towel. It’s like someone was intentionally trying to get her out of the room or something.” Quinn noted, confused about his surroundings.

“A wet towel? But if the murder happened 3 hours ago, there’s no way this towel would still be wet…” I replied, in a rather confrontational tone. 

I figured there wasn’t much weird left in the room besides the book, but I also hadn’t really talked to Quinn much since we got here, so I decided to ask him some questions as well.

“Quinn, do you know anything about Violet’s death?” 

“Well, I, uh…” He started, stammering to find the right answers, “Oh, right! I did see Violet this morning, right around 5. She was going into the student store, and came out with a ruler. I think Cole was attempting to stop her as well. I asked her what the hell she was doing, but she just slapped me and ran off. Frankly, that bitch deserved to be killed…” 

“QUINN, DON’T BE A FUCKING DICKHEAD.” I screamed, as if my own lungs were about to lift up out of my throat.

There was no reason Quinn should’ve said that. Respect the dead, my father always told me. As a kid, I dealt with death a lot, but I never had to face it this up close and personal until we all got trapped in this college. I struggled with my arm, thinking about whether to punch him in the face or not, but if I did, I might accidentally kill him. I don’t want to be faced with murder.

Slowly putting my arm down, I turned towards the book. It was now or never. I had to figure out what was in there that made Violet so angry. I flipped it open. What I read was almost downright insane. It clicked. She reminded me of my sister.

She was harassed into depression and almost committed suicide.

I dropped the book onto the floor, not even able to read the other phrases or words written on the other pages. It all suddenly made sense. Why she wanted to be the Ultimate Activist and not the Ultimate Social Justice Warrior… it’s because she didn’t want to come face to face with that reality. She didn’t want to suffer the bullying. She wanted to avoid it with every inch of her life. 

A tear rolled down my eye when the monitor in Violet’s room lit up.

“I’m getting bored waiting for all of you to finish investigating, so I’m just going to begin the class trial now! Head over to the giant green doors at the end of the main hallway and hop onto the elevator!” Monokuma stated, before the monitor clicked off and left us all in a daze.

“A… what the fuck? Class Trial?” Quinn exclaimed, shocked by the reality Monokuma presented us with.

“Everyone’s probably going to head over soon. We should get going, both of you.” Lydia exclaimed, smiling the entire time. 

I feel like she was trying to cheer me up… no, like she was trying to cheer us all up. I was still crying, but I joined them in walking to the giant green doors. It took us a few minutes, but we managed to make our way there. The three of us opened the giant doors, and behind them everyone was already waiting in front of the elevator.

“Y’all are late, I bet ya fixin’ to pin this all on one of us!” Maggie cried out, probably still angry about Violet’s death.

“There is no spell to revive the dead… This makes me grow sad…” Harold started, as if he thought he was going to finish his sentence but suddenly stopped and said something else.

“Darlings, there isn’t much time to lose!” Morgan stated nonchalantly, hopping into the elevator without a care in the world. 

One after the other, everyone walked into the Elevator. Soon, everyone had stepped in and the elevator finally started to lower down slowly. So slow that it felt eerily quiet, like something had just die- oh. Right. I was trying so hard to forget that I actually did forget. Either way, it felt overly gloomy and very dramatic before finally, the elevator stopped and revealed…

A classroom. But not just any ordinary classroom, it was a classroom with 16 podiums, one for each of us. Sadly, Violet’s not there. Instead, the podium she was supposed to stand at had a stand with her picture on it, but it was crossed out. I figured this was just another one of Monokuma’s sick jokes.

“Welcome to the first class trial! Today, you will discuss who killed Violet, and if you guess correctly, that person shall be executed! But if you guess the wrong person, everyone besides the blackened will be executed! Have fun…” Monokuma popped out of nowhere, said, then popped onto his throne in the back of the room.

Author's Note: The following class trials will be written in a different way from the rest of the story. As the investigation + free time will be written in novel format, everything from the beginning of the trial to voting will be written in a Stage Play format, just to make it easier to follow.

Jasmine: S-so… uhm…

Benjamin: So… I guess it’s time to discuss the case at hand.

Harold: Fantastic! I shall wow you all with my magical debating tactics!

Luna: O-okay then… well, what should be the first topic of discussion?

Dakota: Clearly, it should be what was happening before the murder.

Jasmine: B-before the murder?

Maggie: I reckon so! I’ve been fixin’ to git ahold of this done mess!

Dakota: How about you stop with such inane language?

Maggie: Hell naw, I’m an a-mur-ican!

Quinn: God, it’s like listening to a Mongoose and Snake arguing back and forth…

Harold: You know the spell to listen to animals as well?

Luna: Okay, this is getting off topic. Dakota, can you just… I don’t know… not listen to her?

Maggie: Freedom of Speech is the law, y’all!

Ben: Anyway… let’s move forward with the subject.

Morgan: Darlings, as fabulous as this topic is… how about we decide if the ruler from the store is the murder weapon?

Jasmine: D-did we a-actually f-find the r-r-ruler?

Johnathan: I mean… it’s not like anyone else was gonna look for it, so I did.

Luna: Wait, you found it? Where?

Johnathan: Geez, it’s like you guys missed it. Didn’t you check the women’s restroom?

Avalon: It is not noble for a man to attend the ladies bathhouse!

Johnathan: I’m pretty sure you’d easily be able to do the opposite, Avalon.

Luna: Hold on, why the women's restroom?

Johnathan: I dunno, man. Left it in there, I guess.

Valerie: HAHAHAHAHAA! I saw her in there this morning!

Dakota: And you didn’t say it before?

Valentina: I mean, it’s not like we have the time to talk to you jackholes.

Dakota: Jackholes? Miss, I am an OFFICER of the LAW. 

Valentina: Which means literally nothing in this school, ya fuck.

Valerie: Man, it was like a scene from a Melissa McCarthy movie! She ran into the bathroom like nobodies business as didn’t leave for a good 10 minutes!

Jasmine: T-ten minutes???

Valerie: But I like, went in there afterwards and discovered the Ruler! There was blood on it! It was disgusting! HAHAHAHAAHA.

Luna: Wait, is it possible she was only using that ruler as a tampon?

Avalon: That… is not a valiant way to die!

Lydia: Okay, I feel like the ruler has nothing to do with the murder.

Quinn: I mean, it does explain why she slapped me and ran off.

Luna: I might slap you as well.

Valerie: That was around 5:00 am!

Avalon: THE HERO HAS A QUOTA TO REACH!

Valentina: Aren’t you a girl?

Avalon: NAYSAYERS SHALL BE EXECUTED!

Luna: Just tell everyone what you told me.

Avalon: Very well. I went up to the Cafeteria at around 5 in the morning when I saw Violet running into the laundry room!

Ben: Hold on… I think we know the reason she went into the Laundry Room now.

Harold: And what magical item would make you say that?

Ben: Easy. The Ruler’s Blood.

Jasmine: T-T-The rulers blood?

Ben: Yeah, if she did use that instead of a tampon, then her underwear would’ve gotten all bloody, right? She must’ve went to the laundry room to get the blood out when she was killed.

Lydia: Not that it means anything, but the washing machines in the laundry room take about an hour, so she would’ve been defenseless during that time.

Morgan: My, my… this is getting juicy…

Quinn: Dude, that’s pretty disgusting. 

Luna: Wait, so if she wasn’t wearing panties… why wasn’t there blood on the washing machine?

Dakota: Maybe someone cleaned it off!

Valentina: Or she just used an extra set of panties to… I don’t fucking know.. wear instead?

Luna: But if she didn’t do it herself, why would there be a wet towel in her room? And on top of that… why were there two sets of footprints?

Quinn: Two sets of footprints? The fuck, there weren’t any footprints before Lydia and I left.

Lydia: I hate agreeing with him, but he brings up a good point.

Ben: Because Dakota spilled chemicals that allowed the footprints to appear.

Dakota: HEY, I DON’T JUDGE YOU IN THE LAUNDRY ROOM!

Ben: I wasn’t trying to upset you.

Maggie: I RECKON Y’ALL DO UPSET HIM!

Luna: And the footprints were styled really close to one another…

Ben: Almost like… they were fighting.

Jasmine: F-F-F-FIGHTING?

Harold: I DEMAND TO KNOW THE ACCUSATION YOU HAVE THROWN UPON US!

Ben: Clearly, all of it makes too much sense. The foot patterns, the sparkling particles… Which means, the only people who could’ve done it are the ones who weren’t aware of the situation.

Avalon: But no one went in or out of the laundry room except for Violet!

Valerie: HAHAHA… A likely excuse.

Avalon: Knave, what are you implying?

Valerie: I mean, there’s no sign of a murder weapon, so the weapon also had to be on the person… and you were the only one in the cafeteria during that hour! You’re the murderer!

Avalon: THAT IS AN INSULT TO THE NAME OF MY FATHER!

Valerie: Father? HAHAHAHAHA WHAT FATHER WOULD ACCEPT YOU?

Quinn: How do we know she’s wrong, Avalon?

Avalon: Clearly this is an illusion!

Jasmine: BURN THE WITCH!

Dakota: Holy shit, Jasmine’s stutter’s gone!

Jasmine: I WILL HARVEST YOUR FUCKING ORGANS AND FEED THEM TO OUR CLASSMATES!

Quinn: Holy fucking shit…

Ben: I hope she’s just acting…

Avalon: I’M TELLING YOU, IT WASN’T ME! I HAVE AN ALIBI!

Enoch: My lambs, we should all calm down… for I was with Avalon during the time of the murder.

Luna: Enoch, I thought you said you only met her at 5:45, 15 minutes after the murder.

Enoch: As the great pastor of my old church always said “You shall not tell a lie…” and it seems that I have broken said commandment. 

Ben: What reason would you have to lie?

Enoch: I… 

Cole: B-but I never saw you until 5:45…

Luna: Wait, what?

Cole: I didn’t see anyone walk into the room at 5:30… So unless they had a way to get into the r-room without being s-seen, I don’t think a-anyone could’ve killed Violet o-other than herself…

Avalon: HAZZAH! MY QUOTA HATH BEEN CLEARED! Drinks are on me!

Jasmine: I-I’m sorry for yelling…

Quinn: What the fuck even happened with you?

Jasmine: S-sometimes I g-get a b-bit angry about m-murder…

Ben: Wait, Cole, what did you say at that last part?

Cole: T-that Violet committed s-suicide?

Ben: No before that.

Cole: N-no one g-getting into the room w-without being seen?

Ben: That must be it.

Luna: Ben, are you suggesting something impossible?

Dakota: Hold on… I think I know what he’s talking about. The sparkling particles at the crime scene, the mysterious footprints… it all points to one other person.

Ben: And if that person did commit the murder, everything would match up perfectly. 

Luna: Wait… do you mean the murder weapon?

Valerie: Wait, did I accidentally give everyone a clue? HA! What a bunch a losers for not noticing it sooner! The weapon was clearly on the person!

Ben: A weapon that’s easy to hide…

Dakota: someone who can enter and exit a room without a trace…

Lydia: Sparkling objects in the victim's hair…

Cole: Smoke coming from the laundry room…

Luna: Smoke? Cole, no one said anything about smoke.

Cole: Oh, r-right, I saw smoke coming from t-the laundry room just before the murder…

Maggie: Y’all, are y’all gonna take forever or are we just fixin’ ta stall as long as ya done can?

Luna: Harold…

Harold: A MAGICIAN NEVER REVEALS HIS SECRETS!

Quinn: Shit, dude, she only said your name.

Harold: THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT I, THE GREAT HAROLD, MURDERED VIOLET PARAT!

Avalon: Dear Celtic Gods, it’s like he’s admitting to it while not admitting to it.

Jasmine: YOU FUCKED UP PIECE OF SHIT, I WILL TEAR YOUR INTESTINES OUT OF YOUR FUCKING SKULL!

Morgan: Darling, you are doing me a frighten.

Jasmine: PISS THE FUCK OFF, YOU CROSSDRESSING BASTARD!

Morgan: Wha? How did you know I never had a father?

Luna: God, that’s not important at all.

Ben: Harold, everything points to you. You’re the only person who can… magically… appear and disappear out of nowhere.

Harold: HOW CAN YOU CLAIM THIS WASN’T A SUICIDE?

Luna: Violet doesn’t put sparkles in her hair. We searched her room. There were no sparkles there.

Harold: Well, why not ask one of the other women? How do you know she didn’t simply borrow some?

Valerie: Who the hell would waste their time with some lame sparkles?

Avalon: Not even I use sparkles during my more glamorous cosplay!

Luna: Are you telling us to look in every female’s room and search for sparkles? Dude, you have some on your jacket right now.

Harold: WELL, IF I AM THE MURDERER, THEN WHAT IS THE MURDER WEAPON? THERE ISN’T ENOUGH TIME TO DISPEL SUCH ILLUSIONS! WHAT MAGICAL PROPHECY COULD LURE ANYONE TO THEIR DEATH? EVERY SPELL NEEDS A SPELL SLINGER!

Luna: The puncture wound in her chest was 10 millimeters, so the murder weapon has to be… your magic wand.

Harold: MY… WHAT? IMPOSSIBLE! NOT EVEN MY MOST DIRTY TRICKS INVOLVE MY WAND!

Ben: If you’re so confident, show us the wand.

Harold: SHOW YOU MY WAND? I’D RATHER DIE IN A STORM OF LIGHTNING!

Jasmine: SHOW US YOUR FUCKING WAND, YOU SHITHEADED DOUBLE MURDERER!

Luna: Double Murderer? But Harold only killed Violet…

Jasmine: FUCKING BLONDE-ASS DIRECT TO DVD JACKASS, READ HIS FUCKING SHIT!

Monokuma: So, is it okay to start the voting process?

Class Trial Ends here.

After the class trial was finally over, everyone pulled the lever. A sprite image of all of our faces showed up once we were all done casting our votes. As soon as Harold’s face showed up on the monitor, the large letters that read ‘guilty’ appeared on the screen.

“Da-da-da-duuuun! You’ve all voted correctly! This cases murderer is clearly… Harold Whodoni!” Monokuma yelled in excitement.

“Ha! What a prick!” Valerie yelled.

“Hmm… It seems like I’ve been backed into the mystical corner or treachery… Fine, heathens! I shall show you the wand!” Harold yelled, somewhat energetically, even though he was about to die.

He immediately pulled out his wand, which was pink at the tip. It was, in fact, covered in Violet’s blood.

“YOU PIECE OF FUCKING TRASH, I’LL KILL YOU WITH MY OWN TWO HANDS!” Jasmine screamed at Harold, glowing with anger.

“Hold on,” I interrupted, pushing Jasmine away from harold, “What did she mean by double murderer?”

“It’s easy! The whole reason Harold killed, was just to not have his secret leaked to the public!” Monokuma claimed, not backing up his proof whatsoever.

“Heh… I killed her. My very first assistant…” Harold said, slightly crying.

“YOU DID WHAT, YOU FUCKING SHIT BREAD FUCK?” Jasmine howled in anger, growing every second.

“It was merely an accident,” Harold recanted, remembering the incident, “I was attempting the sawing in half trick, when I forgot to do the simple act of lowering her so the saws wouldn’t hit her. She immediately died… but nobody knew. They all thought the trick was a success. The show ended on that note…” 

“So, in order to maintain your career, you decided to kill someone in order to protect it…” Ben contemplated, thinking about the reasoning behind Harold’s actions.

“Precisely…”

That’s when something really strange happened. Lydia, the quiet girl that everyone only saw writing, walked over to Harold’s are and punched him in the face.

“I don’t give a shit what your reasoning was… you kill anyone, the first thing you do is tell them they’re dead. You don’t keep it a secret from everyone else.” She yelled, in an intense tone. 

Everyone backed off a bit, allowing only Lydia to stare down Harold, and Harold to shuffle in fear.

“Well now, since we’ve all gotten that out of the way, I have a very special Punishment for Harold Whodoni, the Ultimate Magician! So, let’s give it everything we got! IIIIIIIIIIT’S PUNISHMENT TIME!” Monokuma yelled.

And that’s when everything went down the drain. Monokuma’s hand slammed the button, and up popped a sprite of Monokuma and Harold on the screen. As we kept watching, the screen disappeared, and it showed a stage. Monokuma magically appeared on the stage, and as we turned our backs, Harold was gone. Everyone was shocked. 

Back on the screen, Harold has appeared on it, being grabbed by a giant claw you would find in an arcade machine, right over a tank full of water… then another screen appeared. It was like a title card, reading:

The Ultimate Magician, Harold Whodoni’s Execution! Making a Murderer Disappear!

After the title itself had disappeared from the screen, the claw that was holding harold dropped him into the tank of water, and Monokuma shut the lid off. Harold was shown to have immense trouble breathing, before a curtain was pulled from who knows where and covered the tank. After a few seconds, the curtain was pulled back and showed a small basket, to which Monokuma reached in, and pulled out a drenched Harold, coughing up water several times by the second. Then, right before our eyes, Monokuma threw Harold into a magic box, shut it off, and pulled out a magic wand. With a few waves of glittery swirls, Monokuma opened the box again and revealed a small rabbit. Harold was nowhere to be seen. Monokuma then let the bunny hop a few few to the left of him, before violently grabbing a chainsaw and slicing the bunny right down the middle.

And that was the last we had ever seen of Harold Whodoni.

After that, the screen turned black, like one of those old black-and-white movies, and Monokuma reappeared within the room.

“Oof. I never got to do magic before! That was fun!” Monokuma exclaimed ecstatically.

“YOU FUCKING BLACK-AND-WHITE WAFFLE SHIT, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO HAROLD?” Jasmine screamed, super angry.

Everyone else just stayed silent. No one had any actual words for what they just saw.

“Oh, I just turned him into a rabbit! Then I brutally cut him in half, just like he did to that poor assistant! Upupupupupu!” Monokuma yelled, laughing his head off before disappearing.

No one else felt like discussing this issue anymore, so we all headed back to the elevator, when Jasmine finally seemed to calm down, she grabbed me and started crying.

“W-why… why was h-his target Violet? It should've been me…” Jasmine cried.

“I think it’s because… she refused to be his assistant.” I replied back, trying to be as sympathetic as I could.

“I do wonder if she knew what was written in Harold’s book…I might need to dig up that evidence later!” Ben laughed, trying to lighten the mood.

You know, I almost forgot Ben was the ultimate archaeologist. He seemed so focused during his investigation, it was like he didn’t know his ultimate talent. Now I know that he’s just a terrible jokester.

Once we got off the elevator, we all went back to our rooms. I decided to walk Jasmine back to her room as well, since she wouldn’t let go. After she was done crying, she made her way into her room, and I walked back to mine.

I wanted to cry. I had no reason to cry, but I really wanted too. The shock of losing not only Violet, but also Harold, who was actually shrouded in mystery. There’s not only that, but deeper things hidden beneath everyone. Jasmine’s anger, Cole’s… personality, Maggie’s hatred for the police force… I wanted to know all of that.

But sadly, I couldn’t. The monokuma announcement hadn’t even rung yet, but I was already fast asleep, exhausted from the debate.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

End of Day 3

Survivors Remaining: 14


	4. Beginning of Day 4

The moment I heard the monokuma announcement play over the intercom, I woke up. The feeling of despair and torment dissipated slowly, and I don’t think I was fully recovered from it. I was one of the only people who understood what Violet felt, and for her to be murdered first… it was painful.

Although, it’s kind of relieving seeing as Harold was the murderer. Nobody really knew about him that much, and he didn’t exactly talk to anyone else. Unfortunately, that’s in the past now. The miserable past that we all have to cope with. I got up, put on my clothes and walked outside the door when the strangest thing happened…

“Excuse me, Luna? I-I need your help…” a voice called from beyond the door. 

I had only heard it once or twice, so I couldn’t quite make out who this person was, and the fact that she was standing outside my door after the morning announcements, naked, means that something was wrong.

“Please… before everyone comes out!” the voice called again. 

In a quick fashion, I opened the door. In ran a shorter girl with long, reddish hair and several freckles on her face, still naked. Immediately she ran to my closet.

“Uhh… who are you, exactly?” I asked the strange, naked woman.

“You don’t recognize me? It’s me, Avalon!” She said.

I knew I recognized the voice from somewhere, but she had only pulled her armor off maybe once in the entire time we’ve been trapped here. I have never gotten a good look at her face or listened to her voice since it was always muffled by her helmet. I immediately pulled an extra outfit I had on the floor of my closet, a somewhat short-ish skirt and a red tanktop. Immediately, Avalon slammed into my bed and gave a huge yawn.

“Can you please explain why you were naked, Avalon?” I asked, trying to be very calm.

“Someone stole my armor! I can’t be seen without it! I might need to hide in here for a few days…” She replied, cautiously.

“Dude, don’t you have more than one outfit? Why did you even risk running down the hall in nothing but your birthday suit?” 

She paused, which I assume wasn’t a good thing.

“Did you seriously not bring anything else aside from that suit of armor?” I asked, yelling at her.

“EEEEEK. I didn’t think it’d get stolen! Not to mention you don’t have to wash it, since it’s full metal.” She replied, scared because I was yelling at her for being an idiot.

Then another knock came from the door. I didn’t feel like answering in case it was another naked woman, but instead, it turned out to just be Lydia. She invited herself in and immediately stared at Avalon.

“Who is she?” Lydia asked, confused.

“Avalon.” I replied.

“Oh. Well, anyway, both of you need to come to the Cafeteria quickly. It seems the second floor has just opened up.” 

“GASP!” Avalon screamed in excitement, “Another new floor! That sounds totally righteous!” 

I nodded, only because I didn’t feel like I wanted to say anything, and the three of us made our way to the Cafeteria. From first glance, everyone who wasn’t dead was in the Cafeteria, even Valentina, who never came before. However, after looking a bit longer, it seems like Valerie wasn’t there.

“Chyeah, Valerie has some shit to do.” Valentina said, as if she could read my mind.

“As expected of the Ultimate Psychologist. Now then, we should make haste to the second floor and do some investigating. We need to know if we can find anymore information!” Dakota spoke out to the rest of group.

“B-but… uhm… before w-we head o-out…” Jasmine whispered, however loud enough so everyone else can hear it.

“Oh, right! Guys, it’s just me, Avalon. Someone stole my suit of armor, so now I had to borrow Luna’s clothes!” Avalon shouted.

“Could you… like, leave out the part about it being my clothes?” I asked, quietly, since I was super embarrassed about it.

“Y’all fixin’ ta do a lip lock on the lower parts, later?” Maggie winked, sounding super confident about her phrasing.

“I-it’s not like that!” I yelled.

“Wow… I wonder if Avalon was in Luna’s room all night…” Ben suggested, starting to steer into a laugh.

“Christ, I told you, it’s not like that!” I yelled, not thinking about the consequences.

“Now, my child, we shall not use the Lord's name in vain. I do, however, respect your life choices, although they do not meet with the standards of God.” Enoch stated, patting me on the back before I slapped his hand off.

“How many times do I have to explain this to you all? Avalon ran to my room just after the morning announcements, because SOMEONE. STOLE. HER. SUIT. OF. ARMOR! Christ, you guys are morons.” I yelled, extremely pissed off at this point.

“ … So like, shit, was she or was she not naked when you talked to her?” Quinn asked, concerned.

I was about ready to punch him in the face, since apparently he has absolutely no control over his mouth. 

“Quinn, and everyone else, that’s enough. If Luna wants to make love to other women in her private quarters, that is not for us to judge. Gay Marriage IS legal in america…” Dakota said to try and calm everyone down.

“... Uhm, I don’t date.” Avalon finally spoke up.

Everyone’s heads turned towards her, as she sat down at the table in her usual spot.

“Darling, whaaaaat?” Morgan exaggerated.

“Well, it’s not like I don’t get crushes on certain people, but don’t you guys think that there’s no real reason to date under these circumstances?” Avalon explained.

Everyone just stopped talking and immediately felt bad for what they’ve said. Until finally, Johnathan and Valerie walked into the cafeteria.

“Yo, everyone.” Johnathan said loudly, letting everyone know he was there.

“We just had sex and stuff.” Valerie said casually.

“... Nah, that’s not it. There’s a gym on the second floor. I was there for an hour before losing track of time. Valerie was in the auditorium. Neither us nor our genitalia were anywhere near each other.” Johnathan claimed, also acting rather casual.

“Then there’s not much time to lose! To the second floor!” Dakota yelled, running out of the cafeteria.

Almost everyone followed his lead. The only people left were Johnathan, Avalon, Cole, and I.

“Cole, why didn’t you say anything?” I asked, curious.

“I-I don’t like talking to p-people… sometimes, if they g-get angry enough, they’ll t-turn into giant tarantulas and try to e-eat me, like a s-sack of potatoes…” Cole said, trying to cope with his stutter.

“Dude, ya just gotta chill and stuff, bro.” Johnathan said, trying to make him feel better.

“... A-are you sure, Mr. Panda?” Cole replied, apparently seeing Johnathan as a giant panda.

“Yeah, dude. Come on. I’ll help ya build some bulk. Ya gotta get muscles to mine, ya know?”

Cole slowly nodded, before they both took off to explore the second floor. After that, it was just Avalon and I, alone.

“Hey, I have an idea! How about we roleplay as detectives! No, no, wait! British detectives, but one of them has a slight lisp and the other only says gibberish!” Avalon said, standing up as if she had been thinking this whole time.

“... I’m not really down for live action roleplaying right now. Sorry, Avalon.” I replied, sorrowfully.

“Aww, well, it’s no biggie. I mean, heh, sometimes I like to think roleplaying helps escape the horrors of life. You get to be someone else, someone you don’t normally get to be. I think it’s wonderful.” 

“... Well, I guess having a detective along wouldn’t hurt…” 

“AWESOME, I’M GONNA GO GRAB MY NAOTO COSPLAY!”

Avalon immediately ran back to her dorm faster than a cheetah hunting down it’s prey. But what she did just raised the question… did she have extra clothes this entire time? Why did she even need to borrow mine in the first place? And what the fuck is a Naoto?

I didn’t exactly bother wondering about that until she ran back into the cafeteria looking like a cross between sherlock holmes, the color blue, and female traps. But, once she managed to get into character, it’s like she was an entirely different person.

“I hope you’re prepared.” She stated, calmly and collectively.

“... Yeah, okay, but Avalon, we’re late.” I replied, grabbing her arm and dragging her to the staircase.

After countless arguments about not touching her while she’s in character, and myself responding with why I don’t give a shit, we finally made it to the second floor. I dropped Avalon’s arm and she fell onto the floor, shrieking in her normal voice, before finally standing up and dusting herself off.

“Please refrain from dropping me in the future…” She said, angry about the fact that I let go.

Now I am just unsure what to think of Avalon. Her personality went from king arthur to sherlock holmes in less than a day. But I held my emotions back, it was nothing to be a dick about. After understanding what the second floor was, we decided to walk around. The first thing we decided to look into was pretty out of place, since the sign on the door clearly stated “community garden”. 

“Impressive. I didn’t think the mastermind could grow a garden on the inside of the building…” Avalon noted, writing things down in a journal.

“... Where exactly did you have the time to get a journal?” I asked, not actually expecting an answer.

Which was a good thing, because she didn’t give me an answer. She slowly opened the door to the Garden and inside, we saw Jasmine smelling almost every flower in the room.

“OH MY GOD!” Jasmine whispered loudly, “THIS IS THE BEEEEST THING I HAVE EVER LAID MY EYES UPON!” 

“Flowers, inside a building? This is worth a look around…” Avalon said, leaving my side and walking around the garden.

Without my… “trusty” partner, I decided to talk to Jasmine about what she found.

“Oh… Jasmine, this is where you are.” I said, kind of sarcastically.

“Don’t you ever be sarcastic about flowers, shit for brains. If I see you try to commit murder in this room, I will rip your head off, throw it into a melting pot, and serve it to the fucking masses, YOU HEAR ME, PISS-ANT?” Jasmine screamed, extremely angrily, as if she cared more about the garden than anything else.

“D-damn, I didn’t mean it like that… I just didn’t think you of all people would be in here. I kind of expected Valerie to…” I started, but before I could finish, a familiar voice talked from behind one of the flower beds.

“What in tarnation are you two fixin’ ta do here?” The voice said, which made me think it was Maggie.

However, just as I was about to greet Maggie, Valerie had jumped out from behind the flower bed and glomped me. If you don’t know what a glomp is, all you need to know is that it’s very painful.

“Heya, Sugar, did ya miss me? I’ve just been wandering around this room when I heard the super angry voice of Jasmine and it startled me oh so much that I just had ta hide! I feel the rush, baybee!” Valerie yelled, straight into my face before standing back up. The way she said “Baybee” also highly resembled Dante from Devil May Cry.

Besides speech patterns, there was only one other way to tell which one was Valerie and which one was Valentina. You see, Valerie has an aura around her. Literally. It looks like she actually glows all the time. Not to mention, Valentina isn’t as hyperactive. It always looks like she’s bored of everything, all the time. 

Anyway, I finally stood up after Valerie got off me, and Avalon finally made her way back around the garden, taking notes the entire time, and apparently Maggie had also left somewhere during the midst of that conversation.

“OOOOOOH! OH! How about ya show me what notes you’ve been taken, Shirogane!” Valerie yelled again, this time trying to impersonate Avalon’s detective tone.

But once Avalon handed over the notebook, Valerie’s hyper excited look immediately turned into disappointment.

“Man, all you’ve done is doodle in this thing, it ain’t helpful at all! Fucking, I’m just gonna head back to my dorm, this floor is booooooring.” Valerie said angrily, leaving the garden immediately.

“There is no exit. The mastermind, it’s quite tenacious.” Avalon struggled to say, but finally let out words, as if she had to think on what her character would say in a time like this.

“You asshats better get the fuck out of here before I chop-suey your livers!” Jasmine screamed out, almost as if she wanted to be alone. 

With that, Avalon and I left the community garden and made our way to the gymnasium. Inside, Jonathan and Cole were pulling weights, Quinn and Dakota were arguing about something, Lydia was talking all sorts of notes, and Maggie was punching the punching bag so hard, it nearly spilled all of its contents with a single blow. Apparently, this was where she went after the garden.

First things first, I had to stop whatever argument Dakota and Quinn were having, so Avalon and I walked up to them first.

“... AND THAT’S WHY YOU’RE A FUCKING DICKHEAD, AND SPACE JAM IS THE BEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME!” Quinn screamed into the face of Dakota.

“PREPOSTEROUS! THAT MOVIE BREAKS ALL SORTS OF LAWS! OBVIOUSLY THE BEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME IS KINDERGARTEN COP!” Dakota screamed back.

“THE ONLY REASON YOU EVEN LIKE KINDERGARTEN COP IS BECAUSE YOU’RE TRAINING TO BE WITH THE GOD DAMN POLICE, OTHERWISE IT’S A SHITTY MOVIE!”

“SPACE JAM CALLS MICHAEL JORDAN’S SWEAT A ENERGY DRINK, WHICH IS ILLEGAL IN SEVERAL COUNTRIES!”

“NOT IN AMERICA, YOU FUCK!”

“Guys, for the love of god, calm down already.” Lydia interjected, as if she had been quietly listening to the conversation the entire time. 

“CALM? I AM FUCKING CALM, YOU BITCH!” Quinn screamed, as if he wasn’t actually calm at all.

I walked over to the three of them and motioned Avalon to go talk to some of the others in the room while Lydia and I settle this dispute, and that was when I noticed that Dakota was holding onto a taser.

“Dakota, I know you must not agree with Quinn on everything, but is tasing him really necessary?” I shot out, without thinking of the consequences.

“Wha… you were going to TASE ME?” Quinn exclaimed, angrily.

“You were out of control, and it’s my duty as an officer of the law too…” Dakota started, but quickly faded out once he realized where he was going, so he continued into a different sentence, “look, I know we’ve been together awhile, but you really need to control your temper. It’s not your fault that animals have died on your watch.” 

I stopped for a minute, trying to understand what was just said. Animals died? Under the watch of the Ultimate Zookeeper? That seems… impossible. Both of them just stood there, and stopped talking. Slowly, Quinn walked to the door, hanging his head in sadness and anger, as if Dakota had brought up something he was never supposed to bring up.

“Was that something important?” Lydia asked, curiously.

“I...it’s nothing. I probably shouldn’t of even said anything. I need to go. Jasmine might try and murder someone by complete accident.” Dakota replied, panicking intensely.

“Jasmine? But she couldn’t harm a fly. That seems… unlikely.” I responded, hesitantly.

Before I knew it, Dakota had already ran out of the room, like he was trying to avoid the conversation, since it seemed like he knew where it would eventually lead to.

I turned to Lydia, and she sighed almost immediately.

“I wouldn’t try following either of them. It’ll work out.” She said, focusing more on her translations than anything.

“Hey, you want to help investigate this floor with Avalon and I?” I asked, trying to get her out of the chair.

“No, not really. This gym has a scent that helps me work.”

I didn’t even bother asking. I didn’t want to know what she meant, unless she was used to the smell of sweat and puberty, in which case, that must’ve been a really hard life. Or not. I can’t assume anything in a situation like this. I decided to walk away from her and focus my attention elsewhere. In this case, that was towards the Ultimate Patriot, Maggie Merc. Avalon had already been talking to her, while dressed as Naoto, and it seemed as if Maggie’s punching was getting stronger and stronger. 

“You know, I ain’t fixin’ to tell y’all anything, so just leave me the F alone.” Maggie spoke harshly to Avalon, who had been trying to talk to her for the past 20 minutes.

“Hey, asshole, leave the punching to your punching bag. She’s just trying to see what the hell’s going on here.” I replied, with my anger levels steadily increasing.

Maggie let loose one last punch that snapped the punching bag off it’s chain and nearly hit Cole in the face, before Johnathan swooped in and caught it, using his entire body. Cole immediately stood up from the weights he was lifting and helped Johnathan up. During this time, Maggie stormed out of gym and Cole walked Johnathan out of the room, searching frantically for a place to help him out.

I sighed loudly and started heading out the door when Avalon finally caught up to me.

“There seems to be a lack of evidence here, we should move forth.” She told me, nodding her head. Despite only half listening to what she had to say, I agreed to the idea, and we both walked out of the gymnasium. 

“There’s only two more places left, the nurses office and the auditorium. I doubt there’s anything useful escape-wise in the nurse's office, so we should check out the auditorium.” I started, slowly turning my head towards Avalon as I reached the end of my sentence.

“Indeed. The auditorium should at least provide us with some information regarding why we’re here.” Avalon concurred. 

We both nodded our heads and went to the auditorium. Although not as packed as the gym, there were a few people in here. Enoch and Valentina were arguing about something on the stage, while Morgan was attempting to direct them. At first, it seemed weird that Valentina appeared at a time like this, considering she’s always doing something on her phone regardless of there being no internet connection and never seems to have time for anyone else.

Avalon and I decided to walk down the aisle and sit next to Morgan to see what the argument was about, but it turned out that it wasn’t actually an argument, it was more like a scripted act.

“Of course, Gerald, I will always need you, but I must know why you killed her!” Valentina shrieked, her posture still and body language near perfect.

“I told you already, my child…” Enoch started, completely monotonic and seemingly out of character.

“Alright, enough, darlings. Enoch, sugar, you need to stop with your godly speech patterns. You’re all ‘my child’ this and ‘our lord’ that, do you not understand that your character is an atheist?” Morgan complained, finally standing on his own two feet, not even noticing us.

“My sincerest apologies, Mr. Trent. How about we join our hands together and pray to our lord to wipe my acting sins clean?” 

“Why do you believe in god, Enoch?” Valentina asked, quickly and to the point.

Everyone, including Avalon and I, paused the second Valentina spoke those words. No one had ever questioned Enoch’s beliefs, seeing as he was the Ultimate Pastor, so we didn’t understand Valentina’s reason for asking.

“T-that’s… ah… not up f-for discussion, my child.” Enoch replied, hesitating.

“Hmm… if it’s locked in your psyche, I could crack the case. However, it does seems as if your id and superego are… in conflict, are they not?”

Valentina continued to push Enoch in order to get answers out of him, but Enoch continued to give relatively vague answers until eventually, Valentina figured it all out.

“... Interesting, so if I understand correctly, you’re dealing with sins of the past, in hopes that God can forgive you. Well, I can tell you for certain,” She said, starting to walk away with a large glare in her eyes, “hope is an impractical way of handling situations.” 

Valentina then walked straight down the aisle and left the auditorium. Everyone was shocked and it looked like Enoch was about to cry.

“May I offer my help in chasing that lunatic?” Avalon asked, attempting to sound smart but accidentally chuckling after saying the word “lunatic”.

“... No. I’ll talk to her later. For now, we should talk to Morgan and Enoch about this room.” I responded, attempting to stay calm through whatever ulterior plans Valentina had to get everyone pissed off.

“Well, darlings, I hope you understand the reasoning we’re on this stage. To showcase the fabulous life we live through the use of acting!” Morgan called, obviously excited by the idea of a stage being present within the college.

“I sense that you would have cordial relations with Jasmine.” Avalon replied, attempting to create some weird friendship between the two.

“... Honey, with my lifestyle, I doubt I could make friends. But I’m fine with no one accepting me. It’s just… how I’ve always been, long as I could remember.” 

Avalon stopped and proceeded to over analyse Morgan’s state for a few seconds, before finally nodding her head.

“I know the feeling of not being accepted, as it turns out, I am a similar way. I may be capable of presenting myself as a variety of characters, but I am limited to my knowledge of those characters and haven’t the foggiest idea of who I am as a person. If all you think about is who you are in the present, you may never know who you could be in the future.” She replied, taking multiple pauses and acting intelligently. 

“You are a wonderful angel, my child. As heaven remains only within the realms of my book, I can sense that the light of God has touched you in a way that it has never touched me. I shall dwell on this thought, for the time being.” Enoch pondered, walking out of the room.

Avalon decided to follow Enoch in hopes that she could learn more about his thought process. Soon, it was only myself and Morgan.

“You know, I haven’t seen Ben on this floor. I wonder if he’s in the nurse's office?” I asked rhetorically.

“Allow me to follow you, darling. It would be an honor.” Morgan replied.

“... Dude, stop acting so weird.”

“W-weird? But, this is the only known act I can put up!” He panicked, trying to comprehend what he was doing up to this point and trying to change it up a bit while we walked to the nurse's office.

A few minutes of Morgan attempting to pull off several different lingual patterns, we entered the room. Inside, Ben was lurking around the medicine cabinet, and Cole was helping Johnathan heal from the punching bag incident.

“Luna! Morgan! Welcome! Alloy me to show you around this small room!” Ben called, directing his terrible pun at the two of us.

“Okay, first of all, stop, and second of all, what are you doing here?” Morgan asked, getting up close and personal with Ben’s face.

“Well, uhh, as you can see, there’s a lot of medicine around here, most of which date back to Medieval times or the early Greek period. You can also… uh… move away from me. You may look hot, but I can’t really fall for a trap…” 

Ben took at least 10 steps back before jamming the back of his head into one of the cabinets, accidentally spilling an entire bottle of cough syrup on the ground. 

“Dude, are you serious?” Johnathan asked, seemingly healed from the minor injury.

“H-hush, bro. T-the m-m-monster is g-going to eat you…” Cole replied, almost immediately after Johnathan said anything.

“... Is he okay?” I asked, concerned for Cole’s safety.

“He’s been saying stuff like that since they walked in here. But I haven’t sherd anything bad!” Ben said, immediately cracking up at his own archaeology joke.

“... Darling, you have 5 seconds before I slap your ass so hard it sends you back to the stone age!” Morgan yelled, acting like he was all that.

“Morgan, knock it off.” I replied, angrily.

“Stone Age? I would absolutely love to visit the stone age! So many interesting people, such wonderful stories, no electricity! I could just die and go to heaven right after investigating all the plausible sources of humanity and how the culture thrived on nothing more than mushrooms and apples! Maybe one day I’ll be able to meet an engineer… no, an ultimate engineer and he can build me a time machine…” Ben said really fast, continuing long after I started to ignore him and walked out of the room.

“You tired already, honey?” Morgan asked, placing his hand on my back.

“Yeah, It’s been a difficult day. It’s getting a bit late too, according to some of the clocks. Time sure does seem to move fast around here.” I said, wandering back to the first floor to head to my dorm room. 

“Alright, sugar, you take care now!” Morgan called before walking back into the nurse's office. 

As I walked down the stairs back, I noticed something weird about the student store, so I decided to walk in and check it out. Once inside, there was a super weird machine that looked like it spat out presents, but it was hard to see what kind of presents. It also looked like it took some kind of currency. I looked around the student store before finding a coin with a Monokuma face on it, lying on the ground.

“Huh, I wonder if this fits in the… whatever the hell this machine is.” I said to myself, clearly curious.

I dropped in the coin and turned the knob like a gumball machine, when suddenly it started making so many noises that I couldn’t tell what it was anymore.

“Ugh… maybe this is what Cole meant by the monster in the student store.” I replied to my own thoughts. 

After a few minutes, the machine finally spat out a single orb thing with a lid on the bottom. I twisted off the lid, and magically a small microphone appeared. Annoyed by the fact I waited 5 minutes for something I couldn’t use, I stuffed it in my pocket and finally headed back to my dorm room, but then I remembered that I was going to go talk to Valentina about something, so I walked a few extra doors down and knocked on her door, just to see if she would answer.

Suddenly, a glomp came from behind me. I could feel the power from behind it, and automatically assumed it was Valerie.

“YUP, YUP, YA GUESSED CORRECTLY, YA TARNATION!” Valerie yelled.

“Why are you here?” I asked immediately, considering I was tired and I couldn’t handle any more of her shit.

“I just had ta tell ya that Valentina ain’t in her room right now! In fact, I have no idea where she is!” 

“You know her better than anyone else here, do you know where she could’ve gone?” 

“Could’a, Should’a, Would’a, can’t. I’m not allowed to divulge her secret details, duuuuh. If I did, that means people could get into HER head! There’s some dark stuff in there, so not even I bother trying to do so!” 

“But… you’re the Ultimate Impersonator, you have to know enough about the person to imitate them, right?”

“Nah, I just copy their voices. It’s nutting special. I’m not like my childhood friend, who would’ve fooled me, had they not tried being the imposter version of my sister.”

“Valerie…”

She slapped my hand away as I tried reaching out to her, as if she didn’t want me touching her for who knows what reason.

“Don’t try to be sympathetic. I fucked up my chance with them on my own record. Now I got Jasmine and Avalon to worry about… I’m out, looooser.” Valerie cried out, walking away and stretching her eyelid down like an immature 6 year old.

After watching her walk away, I stepped into my dorm room. All was quiet, and that’s when the monokuma announcement came back on. It wasn’t anything special, just the same old Monokuma trying to tell us that it was 10 PM. I had a long day, so the moment the announcement was over, I went to sleep.

All was peaceful after that.

Or so I thought.

End of Day 4


	5. Beginning of Day 5

Sadly, what woke me up wasn’t the Monokuma announcement. In fact, the thing that woke me up was the sound of someone slamming on my door in quick succession. I fell asleep wearing everything, so I didn’t exactly feel embarrassed when I opened the door and discovered that Johnathan was behind it. 

“Luna, my man.” He said, nonchalantly, as he puts everything else.

Johnathan decided to casually stroll into my room after that, as if he had become accustomed to living in girls houses.

“Explain yourself.” I asked, leaning against the door I had just closed.

“Let me stay here for the next, like, 2 hours, man. Cole’s on some weird form of steroids.” 

I glared at him, thinking that the only drug anyone like him could know what steroids, as well as the fact that he thinks he could ask me of all people, to stay in my room. 

“Don’t you have other friends? Like, literally anyone else?” I asked, agitated by the thought of this mess.

“So, uhh… yeah. I asked every guy already. Ben said he was doing something “Lith”, which I assume was one of his archaeology puns, Morgan said he couldn’t have a guy in his room because it would interrupt his beauty sleep or something, Dakota said something about having the rooms locked at this time or something, Quinn yelled at me for some reason, and Enoch only wanted me to stay if I promised to follow god or some shit. I also kind of forgot Harold was dead, so I ended up knocking on his door for like, 20 minutes.” he replied, still unnaturally calmly, “So I decided that I needed to ask a chick, y’know?”

I shrugged off my anger quicker than usual.

“Why are you running away from cole? Yesterday you were all buddy-buddy with him.” I asked, trying to remain calm.

“Dude’s insane. He’s seeing monsters everywhere and yet isn’t on drugs. After I left the nurses office yesterday, he tried to tackle me down and attack me with a dusty syringe. But he’s, like, super weak. I tossed him against the wall and he passed out.” he replied, flustered.

“Did you make sure he was still breathing?”

“Dude always has a miner’s hat on. It would’ve had to be a super hard push for him to have stopped breathing. But the dude is psycho. I don’t know if I can be around him for much longer.”

It was at that moment that the monokuma announcement… didn’t come on, and instead Monokuma decided it was the right moment for him to pop up in my bedroom without permission.

“Oh my my my, how intoxicatingly scandalous!” The bear said, panting sexually.

“Damn bear, this isn’t at all what it looks like!” Johnathan spoke in retaliation.

“What do you even want?” I replied, a bit agitated by all the crap that went on.

“I just need both of you to come to the auditorium immediately! Everyone is waiting~.” Monokuma replied back.

In as fast as he had gotten here, he had then immediately disappeared into thin air, as if he had gained Harold’s ultimate ability.

“You know, we should probably go.” Johnathan said, calming himself.

“... I’m not walking with you. You go ahead. I’ll catch up.” I replied, considering I still had a few things to take care of.

Johnathan nodded and walked out of my room, and I immediately ran off to my closet in order to pick out some things I didn’t want to get blood stains on. I managed to pick out a pretty plain, pink colored t-shirt and a plain, pink colored skirt. I’m not exactly the one to wear anything pink, but if there was any blood, then I didn’t want to get it on my clothes.

… Why is the blood pink, you ask? Fuck you, that’s why.

Anyway, after I managed to pick out some things and got myself a bit more healthy, I figured that it was time to head up to the auditorium to see what all the buzz was about. The sad thing is, I wasn’t exactly the last person to arrive. In fact, when I had arrived, there was only a few people there. Dakota, Quinn, Enoch, Lydia, and Avalon. I didn’t exactly understand what was going on at first, until I heard all of them talking. 

“So what exactly does Monokuma want?” Dakota asked the group, excluding me.

“Who the hell cares what he wants, man! We’re tired of his shit!” Quinn yelled, in a rather pissed off tone.

“If we look into things a bit deeper, we might be able to figure something out. This could be about the next motive.” Lydia speculated, writing a bunch of stuff in her notebook.

“Next Motive? Does monokuma honestly believe that we would kill again? After what happened to Violet?” Dakota immediately questioned, stepping forward to Lydia.

“Possibly. My suit of armor is still missing, and someone had stolen my Naoto cosplay today. It definitely smells like a traitor is among us!” Avalon called, trying to pinpoint her actual point.

“Young Lambs, all of us are still rather inexperienced when it comes to such a debacle. All we truly need is faith in our lord.” Enoch replied, very calmly.

“Fuck your lord, man.” Quinn replied.

“I agree with Enoch. What we truly need is to put our trust into everyone so we don’t kill each other.” Dakota concurred.

After awhile, I had joined the group. Jasmine, Morgan, Johnathan, and Maggie finally showed up as well.

“Luna, what do you think is going on here?” Dakota asked me, as if I was the most knowledgeable person in the group.

“Something is definitely up. I don’t really know what, though.” I replied, shrugging.

“AS LONG AS THESE BITCHASSES DON’T SHOW US A FUCKING MURDER, I WON’T NEED TO FUCKING CUT EVERYONE'S THROATS.” Jasmine screamed, as if her murder-anger had suddenly taken over her entire personality.

“I doubt it has anything to do with murder. You can calm down, Jasmine.” I replied, lightly patting her back.

“O-okay. T-thanks, luna…” She told me, calming down enough.

“Darlings, this is still a disaster! If monokuma woke us all up himself, it can’t be a good thing.” Morgan panicked.

“Y’all need some personal therapy.” Maggie stated, talking to all of us.

At last, the rest of the people had arrived, except for Valentina. Nobody had seen or heard her since last night. Not even Valerie, which was completely strange. 

“Well, shall we *bear* with the issues at hand?” Benjamin said, trying to lighten the mood.

“Good to know your puns aren’t just limited to archaeology terms, ya goof.” Johnathan replied, in his completely calm demeaner.

“I-I saw the m-m-monster again. I-I-It tried a-attacking J-j-jasmine!” Cole stuttered, also aggravated.

“W-what? A mons-ster? W-where? I-I’m scared!” Jasmine cried, almost literally.

“Knock it off, rock fucker.” Quinn insulted, slapping Cole lightly on the head.

“Quinn, what did I say about not being a dick to our classmates?” Dakota said, his voice raising to match his anger.

“Chill the fuck out, I know sexual harassment when I see it, Officer “damn your entire being” Stantz.” Quinn replied, quickly getting angrier.

“Now, now, everyone, the show is about to begin!” Monokuma called from behind the curtain.

But when the curtain rose, it wasn’t just Monokuma we saw. Everyone froze in place, even Valerie. Somehow, we saw that Valentina… was dead. She was laying in front of us, but no one could identify the cause of the death. It was like... there either was none, or she died of natural causes. While everyone was preoccupied with their own fear, Monokuma lept out from behind the lectern, and started tapping on the mic before finally speaking into it.

“Just in case you guys are wondering why the Body Discovery announcement isn’t playing right now, that’s because I was the one who killed the rule-breaker! You see, she attacked me last night, so I had to do something about it!” Monokuma laughed, as if he got a thrill out of showing off his prizes.

“You twisted fucker!” Quinn yelled.

“I’LL GET YOU BACK FOR KILLING MY SISTER, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” Valerie screamed at the top of her lungs in a super high-pitched voice.

“Oh, I’m so frightened. But regardless, I’m going to present the newest motive! I really liked the entertainment angle we had going on with the last motive, so I’m going to do it again! I’m going to play one of the most hated songs in the world through every speaker in the school from now until someone decides to kill again!” Monokuma laughed at all of us.

“You’re the m-monster…” Cole said, super quietly.

“What in tarnation are y’all a-gettin’ your panties tied in a knot for? Worst song my ass, this ain’t my first rodeo.” Maggie scoffed.

“Well, if you all are ready for my magnificent tunes, allow me to present the worst song in the world… _____!” Monokuma called out before immediately disappearing.

(Authors Note: The Worst Song in the world is entirely up to interpretation, and therefore is left blank)

The very second Monokuma disappeared, the song started to play. Everyone immediately grabbed their ears trying to block the sound out, despite some of the music leaking into their ears, making it nearly impossible for anyone to effectively not hear the song.

The good thing was that at least our dorms were soundproof, although I don’t know if Monokuma would force us to listen to the song while we were asleep. Either way, dealing with something like this as a motive while realizing that Valentina was dead was just another stick slammed into my back, causing my legs to not move as much as they should’ve. A few steps forwards, trying to deal with all that pressure to my brain, and I passed out.

The last thing I remembered was falling onto the floor, slamming my head hard on the ground. When I woke up, I was taken to the nurse's office, apparently by Jasmine and Enoch, who were standing directly over me. 

“E-excuse me?” The small, scared voice of Jasmine whispered above me.

“Let her awaken further, my lamb. Only God himself can create a miracle for her now.” Enoch told Jasmine, attempting to comfort her.

“Well, for one thing, I know both of you are god damn morons.” I attempted to reply, trying to get up, “How long was I out?” 

“I-it’s been a few h-hours, at m-most… since M-monokuma started p-playing that… t-t-terrible song.” Jasmine replied hastily, but still quiet.

“Indeed, my lamb. We are just happy the mercy of the Lord has touched you.” Enoch quickly added.

“Well, it’s relieving to hear the song is still playing… that means no one has died yet…” I replied, still trying to get up from the bed.

“H-hey… that thing in your pocket…” Jasmine noticed, then attempted to ask me.

The item shining in my pocket was the weird item I had gotten from that weird machine in the student store. I didn’t exactly realize it at first, but I thought that I should give it to Jasmine because I had no use for it.

“O-oh, right… this was something I was going to give you anyway, so take it.” I replied, handing over the small microphone to Jasmine.

“Oh my g-gosh, this is the b-best present anyone has e-ever given me! I w-would hug you, but your c-condition makes me unable to do so…” Jasmine replied, panicked, but happy.

“Heh… don’t worry about my condition… I’ll beat it…”

I finally got up off my cot as I immediately fell on top of Enoch, since my balance was still very wobbly.

“My child, I apologize for not treating you correctly. Allow me to find someone who might help.” Enoch fumbled, running out of the room to find someone.

“Ugh…” I replied, trying to grab my head.

“Yeah… b-boys, right?” Jasmine replied.

“Even in this situation, I can’t understand them.” 

Jasmine giggled a bit, then propped me up using some crutches she had found in the corner of the office.

“H-hey… can I tell you something?” Jasmine asked, after a few moments of silence.

“Yeah, sure.” I replied.

“Do y-you mind if we go to t-the garden? I like it there.”

I nodded my head, trying to balance myself on the crutches as Jasmine walked me over to the community Garden. Once we got there, she sat me down on a bench and began twirling all over the place. 

“What’s with you? It’s like you suddenly got some pep in your step…” I laughed, loud enough to the point where it seemed to be contagious, causing Jasmine to laugh as well.

Once she finally calmed down, she fell back softly on a bed of flowers behind her.

“The flowers… remind me of my family. My close family, at least. My mom, my dad, my sister… they were all super nice and super supportive, to the point where I don’t stutter when talking about them,” Jasmine smiled, looking happily into the fake sky, before her expression suddenly turned dark, “until my dad’s sister comes over…” 

I paused, looking straight at where she laid, unable to form any words to convey the immediate sadness I was feeling.

“My a-aunt… she… s-she… k-killed them... right on the f-flower beds… and she t-tried to kill me… that FUCKING DICKHEAD BITCH PASTA SALAD, I’LL CHOP HER FUCKING BRAINS INTO THIRDS AND SERVE THEM AS BEEF STEW THE MOMENT I GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!” Jasmine screamed at nothing in particular. 

I was stunned, I had no idea that Jasmine had that kind of past, but that was the sole reason I understood why she was so angry at the mention of death, or even the sight of it. Although, it seemed weird that it immediately started after her aunt killed her family, there had to be some sort of reasoning behind it. 

“I can kind of understand, I can understand a family member taking a family member's life… except, my case is a bit different… but, what I don’t know is how your angry mentality was caused only because…” I tried to start, but Jasmine immediately cut me off.

“S-she tried to kill me? I survived… and I r-ran away. Far, far away f-from her… from Connecticut to Los Angelas. I-it’s funny, all my time l-living on the s-streets and I still c-can’t bring myself to h-harm anyone, no m-matter how angry I get… because if t-they fight back… I’ll die…” Jasmine replied, starting to cry. 

I really wish I could move on my own right now, after hearing that story and witnessing the events, I couldn’t help but cry myself. Before I knew it, Jasmine was sitting next to me, crying into my shoulder.

“I w-went to the doctors when I a-arrived in LA…” She started, wiping the tears from her eyes, “They s-said I had gotten a tumor, not big enough to were it could damage my b-brain, but big enough to the point in which they said if I e-ever got another o-one, I would die. So I did what I could. I worked my w-way through high school w-with the best grades possible, and a-achieved my entry into sentai filmworks, having to m-move to texas. But everyone was really n-nice… they heard m-my story and paid m-my rent until I was able to d-do it myself… I worked really hard… and then they told me I was the best voice actress they ever had…”

“And that’s when you got scouted to Hope’s Peak College, right?” I asked, trying to break her out of the memory.

“... Actually, it’s weird. I don’t ever remember being scouted to Hope’s Peak College.” 

Her answer kind of shocked me, but as I thought about what she was saying, I realized that I also don’t remember being scouted here. But I was sure it was nothing, so I left it alone.

“... Hey, Luna?” Jasmine asked finally, breaking the silence.

“Huh?” I replied, half in the real world, half in my own world of zoned-out-ness.

“Thank you for l-listening. No one e-else has cared up until n-now.”

I stood up, dropping the crutches that I wasn’t entirely sure I needed the in the first place.

“I’m always here for a friend. Whoever this mastermind is, I’m sure we’ll kick their ass in the end!” I called at full volume.

My sentence was so loud, it was almost like the soundwaves bounced off the walls and started acting like wind, causing some of the flowers to blow a tiny bit to the left. Jasmine giggled, and we both went back to our dorms. She, of course, helped me walk back. 

Once I got to the dorm room, I looked at the clock. It was only around 9 pm. The Monokuma announcement hadn’t come on yet, so I decided that I should do some laundry.

Once I walked over to the laundry room, I noticed that Avalon was sitting alone in the corner. I decided to crack a smile and try to give her a friendly face to see.

“AHA! LUNA-CHII!” She yelled, jumping on top of me like I was a long lost friend, or a sister.

“Avalon… what the hell?” I asked, before actually looking at Avalon.

Her wig this time around was a super dark blue that was almost black. She also wore some high school uniform and had an arm band that had some weird japanese lettering to it.

“Is this another one of your cosplays?” I asked, pushing Avalon off of me just so I could get up.

“Of course it is! I am Mirei, the student council president of Senko Private High School! I was hoping to meet you here…” Avalon replied with a super malicious grin on her face.

“I… uhh… okay, I was cool with the whole detective character yesterday, but this is really freaking me out.” I said, slightly agitated but also slightly scared.

“So did you or did you not send me a letter calling me a forbidden lover?” 

“I… uhh… what? Who the hell would have time for something like that?” 

I finally noticed that I was blushing at the fact that Avalon called me a ‘lover’, but this situation was ill-fit for any sort of romantic relationship.

“B-but… if it wasn’t you… then who wrote the letter telling me to go to the auditorium?” Avalon asked.

At that very moment, we had heard a giant metallic slicing sound from directly above us. But the thing that scared us most?

… The music had stopped playing.

End of the daily life… Day 5


	6. Day 5 Continues

As if on cue, Avalon and I ran straight to the Auditorium. I had almost tripped and fell down the stairs, but Avalon grabbed my arm before I could pass out again, and lifted me back up with all her strength. She was surprisingly strong, for someone with her talent. Although I really shouldn’t be judging someone based on their talent.

Once we got to the doors of the auditorium, Johnathan was already standing outside the doorway, as if he had also heard the metallic slicing.

Avalon and I both bent over to catch our breath, and as if on cue, Ben was right behind us.

“Well, it seems the troop stormed back for a slice of action.” Ben said, trying to break the uneasy silence.

“Please don’t become a Quinn, man.” Johnathan sighed, opening the door to the auditorium.

As Avalon and I caught our breath, we strongly trudged into the room, only to see one of the more horrifying events of our lives. As we all stood there, looking straight forward, we saw the decapitated body of Enoch Breston, with his arms still locked in a stockade directly below a large, angled blade. 

“... Fuck.” was the only word that anyone could say, and it had come out of Johnathan’s mouth. 

Immediately, since all three of us had entered the room and saw that Enoch was dead, the body discovery announcement played.

“A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time has passed, we will begin the class trial!” Monokuma blasted over the intercoms. 

Immediately, Maggie and Jasmine had ran into the room. Both of them were rather close, as Maggie was in the gym and Jasmine was in the garden still.

“E-E-ENOCH?” Jasmine screamed, as if she was going to explode from anger… which she immediately did, “ALRIGHT, WHICH ONE OF YOU FUCKING LOSERS MURDERED THAT FUCKING PRICK? I WILL EAT YOUR FUCKING INTESTINES WITH A SIDE OF FRIES ONCE I FIGURE OUT WHO THE DUMBASS NOODLE SOUP IS!”

“What in tarnation? I’m fixin’ ta murder that wretched bear.” Maggie growled, in the lowest possible tone I have ever heard her speak.

After a few minutes, everyone else had managed to file in. Some were shocked, and others were just flat out angry.

“Another murder?!? How has the law proven wrong?” Dakota cried out, actually dripping a few tears from his face.

“Fucking bullshit… what is this, a damn murder circus!?” Quinn yelled, angry about the state of the body.

“I can’t dig this… this is… dead weight I can’t carry…” Ben punned, as if unintentionally.

“I-I-It was the m-m-monster a-again! I w-w-will f-f-fucking m-m-murder it!” Cole stuttered angrily.

“Valentina… I’m jealous that you aren’t alive to see this terrible display…” Valerie noted, sadly.

“... Well, I think we’ll have to investigate. The true murderer is somewhere in this room, and if we don’t find them, it’ll all be over for everyone.” Lydia spoke, trying to calm everyone down.

“... Yeah, I think Lydia has a point…” Johnathan claimed, also calming down.

“I also think Lydia has the perfect point!” Monokuma exaggerated, popping out of nowhere again.

“God fucking damn it, you damn bear!” Quinn yelled at the sight of Monokuma.

“Now, now, everyone! I’m only here to give you the one, the only, Monokuma file!” 

As if on queue, Monokuma dropped the file on the floor and disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving the area without a trace. I sighed at the thought of it, and picked up the file.

“So, Enoch’s cause of death was definitely decapitation, and he died around 9:15 pm today. That’s the gist of the file.” I said, reciting the words from the file to explain to everyone what happened.

“Who the hell would even want to kill Enoch? He didn’t ever really do anything fucked up.” Quinn asked, confused.

“Darling, with a good enough motive, anyone can flourish!” Morgan claimed, speaking fantastically. 

“Who the hell asked you, Morgan “I’m Stereotypically gay” Trent?” Quinn yelled at Morgan, who suddenly cowered and lowered his body towards the floor.

“When I become an officer of the law, I will ban you specifically from insulting our classmates!” Dakota yelled back at Quinn.

“Guys, what’s all the fossil about?” Ben asked, being both serious and not serious at the same time.

“Gosh, it’s like a-watchin’ a dang episode of Bill Nye on PBS. Y’all oughta focus on the body, Ya hear?” Maggie critiqued, slowly getting angry. 

Everyone nodded, and all of us moved towards the stage… except for Valerie.

“Hey, Val, are you coming or not?” I asked, yelling at her as she stood at the back of the room.

“I need to stay with Valentina… in the spot where she died…” Valerie said, although something seemed a bit off with what she was saying, but I ignored it and moved on.

“Look at this…” Lydia called over to me, while I was still off the stage, “You see, the head is in the basket, decapitated, his arms are still held tightly by the stockade, but the weird thing is… there’s no blood on the guillotine itself.”

I paused and looked at the guillotine only to see that Lydia was right. There was no blood anywhere on the guillotine, not to mention it looked oddly cleaned off.

“Wow, it’s so shiny! I might have to steal the murderer’s ability to clean things so well. Don’t you think that would be grand, Forbidden lover?” Avalon clarified, then motioned towards me.

“Please don’t call me that.” I replied, trying to ignore her roleplaying.

“Forbidden Lover? … Is there something you aren’t telling me, Luna?” Lydia questioned, somehow attempting to poke me in the face.

“Guys… the case?” Dakota raised his voice at us.

“Oh, right. Well… huh? That’s weird…” I said, raising my voice in curiosity.

I reached into the disembodied head of Enoch, screaming and panting heavily, before pulling out a single, wooden sliver.

“H-h-how does the m-m-monster know h-how to u-use wood?” Cole stuttered, trying to effectively ask a question.

“... If there’s no blood on the guillotine, and wooden slivers in Enoch’s head, then is the guillotine really the murder weapon?” Lydia asked.

“... No, I’m sure it is. It’s way too shiny for it to be not used. Not to mention… how the hell did someone even get a guillotine get here?” I asked, instantly regretting it because it made Monokuma appear once again.

“Luna! I thought of all people, you would know that it came here through the student store! Don’t you pay attention?” He mocked me, as I turned in his direction and nearly fell.

“You mean, the Monomono machine? How the hell is that supposed to work, everything is so god damn tiny!”

“... Uhh… L-Luna, did that m-m-microphone come from that m-m-machine?” Jasmine asked, incredibly quiet.

“... Well, yes, but what does that have to…”

I stopped, immediately realizing what Monokuma meant.

“Wait a minute, are you telling me that these things grow to normal size after a certain period of time?!?” I yelled in utter shock and amazement.

“You finally get it! 10 points to gryffindor! Or… whatever team you guys are on. But yes! Using the wonderful powers of magic, any of the MonoMono items will grow to normal size after earning them!” Monokuma exclaimed proudly.

“But wait, how did the killer get the exact item they needed to pull this off?” 

“The more coins you put into the machine, the more likely you get what you want! Now, that’s all the information I can reveal, so I need to disappear again!”

And with that, Monokuma left in a puff of smoke.

“... So if I understand this correctly…” Ben started, looking directly at the guillotine, “This giant piece of metal was once a super small toy? Not even a million years of pressure could cause that!” 

“Then it’s how he says, caused by magic.” Dakota concurred.

“Looks like there isn’t much else to determine from just looking at the weapon, let’s have a look around the auditorium. There should be a few more clues.” I said, trying to get everyone away from the body before they do something disgusting.

“Y-y-yeah! S-s-stay away f-from the m-m-monster!” Cole stuttered, pointing towards the guillotine.

“... Christ, dude. You must be on some wacked out drugs if you still think there’s a monster.” Johnathan stated, cleaning out his ear.

“S-s-stay away f-from me, you d-dirty j-jock! I-I-I’ll p-prove it’s a m-m-monster!” 

Cole then ran off stage right, before we heard screams coming from both directions of the stage. I looked at Johnathan, and it was then we silently agreed to check out both sides. I went stage left, and he went stage right. Morgan, Maggie, Ben, Lydia, and Dakota followed me. Everyone else went with Johnathan.

When I looked, a lot of things immediately clicked. Avalon was on the floor, with a sheer look of terror on her face. What we saw, was none other than the suit of armor that went missing just a few days ago. 

“N-no… was this used f-for murder?” Avalon shrieked, while still laying on the floor in agony.

“... Wait a minute… is that…?” I started, moving towards the armor.

I rubbed my finger against the left shoulder, just to double check something.

“Hmm? What is it, honey?” Morgan asked.

“... Glitter. The same glitter from the first trial. But why is it on the…” I said, right before getting interrupted by another of Avalon’s shrieks.

“MY SWORD!” she yelled, in utter shock.

I looked back, and noticed that the sword Avalon had in her hand had the tip dripping in blood.

“... Just the tip?” Ben asked, somehow accidentally making a pun.

“The glitter, the sword in blood… I don’t understand how these two have any correlation to each other.” Lydia confirmed.

“I ain’t done thinkin’, but uhh, maybe tha killers tryna throw y’all off? I reckon that there glitter is more of uh… whatcha call it? Misdirection, or sumthin?” Maggie said, actually being helpful.

“Huh. Her talent is pointless, but her deduction is great.” Morgan gloated.

“What in tarnation are ya tryna say? I think you oughta step down before I slam my fist into ya like I’m a bull and you’re that red flag.” 

“There’s something else that feels out of place about all of this. The banner read…” Lydia started, before being interrupted by Morgan.

“Sugar, what banner?” He asked, as if nobody but Lydia had noticed.

“The banner above the guillotine. It reads, “The King Demands Execution!”. I think this entire murder was set up to make it look like Avalon killed Enoch. It’s very medieval-looking, straight down to the guillotine…” Lydia continued.

“But it wasn’t me! I was with Luna the entire time the trial was going on!” Avalon yelled, accidentally removing any emotion but fear from her voice.

“I was. I found her in the laundry room, right before Enoch was killed.” I replied, solidifying Avalon’s alibi.

“I guess that’s proof enough, as well as the fact that I don’t think anyone who killed would be utterly terrified at the thought of using their own armor for murder…” Ben noted.

“But honey, wouldn’t the Ultimate LARPer not have a problem with acting a certain way?” Morgan asked, attempting to bring up a counterpoint.

“No way! Not even a character I roleplay would be enough to make me do such a terrible thing… hurgh… this is like Camelot all over again…” Avalon said, still in a very fearful state.

“... Hey, can you guys keep an eye on her? I should go check what the other side of the stage was about.” I spoke up, trying to make sure Avalon wasn’t put in danger if the killer tried to come back.

Everyone nodded, and I ran off to see what Johnathan, Quinn, and Jasmine were up too. When I finally made it to them, I noticed they were all on their hands and knees.

“Fucking rat bastard…” Quinn spoke the moment I entered the side of the stage.

“Chill, man. It’s just Luna. She’s cool.” Johnathan said, trying to stop Quinn from insulting everyone.

“What happened?” I asked, trying to get an explanation for that scream I heard earlier.

“I-it was c-cole. He f-fell through this t-t-trap door.” Jasmine whispered.

“Yeah, that dick scared the shit out of Dakota.” Quinn quickly added.

“Does it lead anywhere?” I asked, trying to get more information.

“Yeah… the cafeteria.” Johnathan answered fairly slowly. 

I immediately got on my hands and knees to look through the door, until I nearly lost my balance. As if someone pushed me, I toppled over and nearly fell head-first through the trap door, but luckily, someone grabbed me and pulled me up. As I turned around and looked, I noticed that it was actually Quinn who had caught me.

“I.. didn’t expect… you to be that… kind of person…” I said once I was lifted back up into the auditorium. 

“That was just like, 10 feet, you fuck. You would’ve survived even if I did catch you, but you would’ve passed out, and I can’t let you pass out right now, damn it!” Quinn said, struggling between his normal personality of “I hate everyone” and another side of him that no one but Dakota knew.

“Aww… you’re adorable, Quinn.” Jasmine said, in a hushed tone, but no stutter.

“S-shut up, jackass.” He replied immediately.

Jasmine decided to hug him for some reason, before I got up and looked around. Cole hadn’t come back yet.

“Maybe he dodged the rest of his investigation. Like a true coward.” Johnathan joked.

“Maybe,” I started, before saying something a bit more serious, “but hey, how about we split off for a bit. Quinn, you and jasmine search the garden, Johnathan and I will search Enochs' room, and I’ll let the others decide amongst themselves what to do.” 

“Sounds good to me, man.” Johnathan concurred.

“I don’t have a problem with it…” Jasmine said, in a more quiet tone than before.

“I-I mean if it helps move the damn case forward, then… hell yeah.” Quinn replied.

Quinn and Jasmine immediately took off to the garden, and Johnathan and I explained the situation to the other group.

“Hey, how about Lydia and I check out the nurse's office? I’m sure we can drill a hole into this murder!” Ben punned. 

“... I don’t know if I can deal with Ben’s excessive punnage.” Lydia replied.

“Darling, allow me to accompany you as well.” Morgan asked.

“I’m not so sure I can handle you either.” Lydia continued.

“Well, since I oughta help out a bit more ‘round here, I’ll jump off with Lydia to the nurse's office.” Maggie offered.

“So Morgan, Ben, and Dakota should stay here with Avalon, and Maggie and Lydia will check out the nurse's office?” I asked, making sure I had everything correct.

“I think we are all in agreement, forbidden lover…” Avalon said, with a look of fear on her face but a happy tone coming out of her mouth.

“... Please don’t call me that.” I replied, before we all split off to our separate ways.

After a small bit of conversation, between Johnathan and I, we made it to Enoch’s room, where we found that he door was already opened.

“That’s weird…” I started.

“What, that his door was open? This happened at 9, it was likely that everyone else was in their rooms at that point.” Johnathan replied.

I shrugged it off and entered the room, only to see… not really much at all. Just a bed, a desk, and a table in the middle of the room with a couple of books on it. 

“Hey… what if all Enoch brought with him was his bible and his clergy uniform?” Johnathan asked.

“That’s an interesting proposition… and most likely fitting for the situation. But then, that would mean the other book is his first motive…” I replied.

I quickly opened the second book on the table and began reading. Most of it was like Violet or Lydia’s book, a lot of random words that might have more meaning to the person than anyone else. A lot of it was religion related, like the words “pray”, “jesus”, “love”, etc. But immediately, the book stopped, and once I read the next words, so did my breath. The next words were the hardest.

They read:

“Enoch Breston only became a pastor after cheating on his first girlfriend unknowingly.”

“Holy shit.” Johnathan emphasized, surprised by the information.

“No wonder… maybe someone tricked him and he felt so bad about it that he forced himself into the christian religion. But the first cases motive isn’t relevant anymore…” I replied, trying to deduce as much information as possible.

“Maybe not, but what if the killer found out about this too, and that’s why they killed Enoch? Look at this, someone did try to get him to leave his room…” 

Johnathan held up a piece of paper, one that looked a lot like the one Avalon had earlier tonight, and even with the same signature of a forbidden lover. After looking over it, a lot of the writing itself looked like it came directly from Avalon herself, in her Naoto persona.

“Avalon had a similar note. I think it was written in the same speech as Enoch's… wait… the notes, the murder scene, Avalon’s suit of armor… I think the killer was trying to frame Avalon for Enoch’s death…” I said, shocked since I believed I had just made a discovery no one else had, despite forgetting that Lydia had already said the same thing.

“Certainly looks that way…” Johnathan confirmed.

Suddenly, the Intercom in Enoch’s room went off. 

“Alright guys, I’m getting super bored. Please go back to the giant green doors at the end of the main hallway to participate in another Class trial! Oh, and if you’re wondering, I pretty much changed all the monitors to intercoms overnight just to make it feel more like a college. However, I can still see everything you’re doing, so be careful!” Monokuma shouted through the intercom, laughing a bit.

“Let’s grab his bible and make it to the elevator.” I said.

Johnathan nodded as I grabbed the bible and we took off. Once we made it to the elevator, everyone had arrived, as well as Valerie, who hadn’t been seen since she said she was looking over her sister’s body… place.

“Hey, did anyone figure anything out?” I asked the crowd.

“Nothing strange in the garden, I guess, but it smells like cow shit.” Quinn claimed loudly.

“F-f-fertilizer is c-cow shit, I t-think…” Jasmine tried to agree.

“The nurse's office was fine, but we saw some footprints going in and out of the cabinets…” Lydia replied.

“Haha, sorry! That was me. I did that a few days ago by accident. But that medicine was totally harmless! Like a… a… uhm… some fossil fuel?” Ben said, trying to find the right words for a pun.

“Y’all need ta work on ya person speak.” Maggie sighed.

“Avalon is totally okay though, Morgan and I were able to calm her down!” Dakota shouted.

“Right, thanks Officer.” I replied.

“Honey, you should be thanking us. Ben went off on his own after a few minutes…” Morgan spoke, loud enough to the point where I could hear it a bit easier.

“I went to the bathroom! I had to eject my own fossil fuel…” Ben cried.

“That’s pretty fucking disgusting, dude.” Quinn called from the other side of the room.

“Yo, yo, yo! Are we gonna head down there or what?” Valerie yelled.

“R-right, we s-s-should all g-get into t-t-the elevator b-b-before the m-m-monster gets us!” Cole shouted, running off into the elevator with Valerie.

“M-m-monster? W-where?” Jasmine asked, while also crying and acting scared.

“Fucking prick. Putting false ideas into people's heads.” Quinn mumbled, before heading off into the elevator.

Slowly, everyone else had filed into the elevator again, except this time we were missing a couple other people. The ride down to the trial room was, once again, fairly silent, until someone spoke up.

“You guys think this’ll be the end of it all?” Dakota asked.

“Sadly, I doubt it. But the better we fight, the more we win. We can bring down the mastermind behind it all if we try our hardest.” I replied, still slightly angry about the whole trial thing.

That’s when the elevator stopped, and everyone got into place. Harold, Violet, and now Enoch’s seats were all empty, and Monokuma once again rose from nowhere.

“Now we can finally move on with the second class trial! Today, you will discuss the murderer of Enoch Breston, and if you guess correctly, that person will be executed! But if you pick the wrong person, everyone besides the killer will be executed instead! Have fun!” Monokuma shouted after appearing in his throne.

So it’s finally come down to this, all of our investigating will be worthless if we don’t figure out the murderer… so now it’s time to figure out who killed Enoch Breston.

Class Trial Begins Here

Morgan: Darlings, it seems that we must start anew…

Luna: So what exactly do we start with? The murder weapon, the time it took place, the guillotine, the glitter, the trap door…

Dakota: Why not start with the alibis? Every great Officer knows that Alibis are the most important part of all!

Quinn: You aren’t an officer yet, jackass.

Jasmine: Well, I c-can confirm that I w-was in the garden t-the entire day…

Lydia: I was also there. I went in around 8 pm, and she was with me up until Enoch’s death.

Jasmine: Y-yay! Lady friends!

Luna: Then why didn’t you come running with Jasmine?

Lydia: I was busy… transcribing something in the toolshed.

Ben: Transcribing? I should totally take you on one of my digs!

Lydia: No.

Ben: and just like the dinosaurs, my heart is rip.

Maggie: I reckon I can confirm I was that I was in the gym with Johnathan, punchin’ out my worries.

Johnathan: Yeah, her case is pretty solid. I was also there.

Avalon: and I was with my forbidden lover the entire time!

Luna: I’m going to punch you the next time you say that.

Avalon: Sorry… I’ll go back to Naoto.

Avalon rips off her clothes and takes off her wig to reveal that her Naoto cosplay was on the entire time when they were at the elevator.

Valerie: You had that piece of shit cosplay on this entire time?

Avalon: Why, yes. I was afraid that if I divulged this information ahead of time, it would have a disastrous outcome.

Dakota: Wow, her personality changed rapidly!

Quinn: I wouldn’t be talking about changing personalities, Prick.

Luna: Okay, calm down. Back to confirming your alibis.

Quinn: Well, I was basically with Dakota the entire time. He was acting like a colossal douche though, so I don’t know if I want to even bring that up.

Dakota: As much as I hate to admit it, it is my sworn duty to agree to that statement.

Morgan: Well now, sugar, I don’t have an alibi. I was doing my makeup to get ready for my beauty sleep.

Jasmine: y-you do make up?

Morgan: and I do it fabulously.

Cole: I-I-I was c-chasing the m-m-monster… the m-m-monster is m-my alibi…

Maggie: So… ya have none. 

Cole: ASK THE M-MONSTER, MAGGOT!

Quinn: HAHAHA! Okay, Cole gets bonus points for that amazing pun.

Ben: But that pun wasn’t good at all… But in any case, I was in the nurse's office.

Luna: Why?

Ben: I was counting the bottles of poison. 

Luna: Literally why?

Ben: Dude, I get bored. There’s no dig sites here. I’m basically worthless. Also, there are 205 bottles of poison and none of them were missing before or after the murder.

Dakota: How did you count? I thought you went to the bathroom.

Avalon: I concur, that does raise suspicions.

Ben: Oh, yeah, I lied about that.

Quinn: Way to be a dick, dude.

Maggie: Yeah, that there bastard crashed our investigation when ya told us ta look in tha nurse's office…

Lydia: I almost ran away.

Valerie: Oh, right, and I was sleeping in my room, like a film… with that one person… who did some stuff… after I checked on Valentina in the auditorium!

Luna: You were in the auditorium? When?

Valerie: It was 6 pm, ya dunceball! 

Luna: So… Cole, Ben, Morgan, and Valerie don’t have alibis.

Cole: THE M-M-MONSTER IS M-MY ALIBI!

Jasmine: IF YOU FUCKING MURDERED ENOCH I WILL SLAM YOUR FACE INTO A BASKETBALL RING WHILE STUFFING YOUR FUCKING EAR DRUMS WITH FRUIT LOOPS!

Quinn: … Can someone explain why Jasmine isn’t being convicted of murder?

Jasmine: AS IF I COULD COMMIT MURDER, YOU FUCKING RETARDED NUMBER 7. I WILL PIERCE THE HEAVENS WITH YOUR DICK AFTER I TEAR IT OFF!

Quinn: No, seriously, can someone explain it to me

Luna: Jasmine can’t exactly handle death that well, she might make a lot of threats, but her past makes it really hard to do so. Also, she has an alibi.

Valerie: Well, then let’s just turn it to a completely different person!

Morgan: My, my, well, if you must know, the reason I had to have my beauty sleep…

Valerie: Not you, ya piece of shit. I was referring to Avalon!

Avalon: What was that?

Valerie: I mean look at all the evidence, the guillotine, the banner… all of it is TOTALLY middle ages, just like Avalon! Not to mention it was HER suit of armor!

Avalon: But we already confirmed that I lost my suit of armor the day after Violet’s murder.

Luna: Not to mention, the look on her face when she saw the suit of armor wasn’t the kind people make when they finish a murder in it.

Lydia: … And we already solidified her alibi.

Valerie: That explains it! Luna is her accomplice! She’s lying to all of you to make Avalon seem like she isn’t the murderer!

Jasmine: THE WITCH HAS A POINT, BURN THE MOON!

Ben: Burn the moon… Oh, it’s a pun! Cause her name’s Luna! 

Lydia: yes, Luna means Moon in about 30 different languages, but that’s not really important.

Luna: But there’s no evidence that points to Avalon as the murderer…

Valerie: SORE WA CHIGAU YO!

Luna: What? You weren’t even at the crime scene! How would you know about anything?

Valerie: I found incriminating evidence in Avalon’s room!

Luna: Why would you even have access to her room?

Valerie: Well, you see… when you first enter her room… you can totally see something shiny in the corner! That’s clearly the murder weapon!

Luna: How would you know that without looking at it? It could be a penny... a quarter… OR a different cosplay!

Valerie: Any of those guesses would be valid… but there’s one thing you’re forgetting… Avalon’s armor came with a long metallic sword… and that sword would shine off anything!

Luna: I’M GOING TO PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE!

Valerie: Whaaaaat? Did I say something wrong?

Luna: Yes, because there’s no reason for the sword made out of wood to be shining in the mirror.

Avalon: Exactly. My sword wouldn’t of shined since the basic material it’s made out of was wood, and was just painted on to look silver.

Valerie: I… oh…

Ben: But why the hell were you in Avalon’s room anyway?

Valerie: I ran there after I saw the crime scene. It totally looked like she was the murderer! I mean, the whole “The King Demands Execution” banner, etcetera.

Lydia: She does raise a valid point. Someone would have to hate Avalon enough to frame her.

Luna: … Not exactly. They could’ve just done so to… wait a minute, hold on, Valerie.

Valerie: Whaaaaaaaat? What’re going to rattle on about now?

Luna: You said you ran to Avalon’s room after you saw the crime scene, right?

Valerie: No shit sherlock, could ya not understand me?

Luna: Then how the hell did you see Avalon’s sword if it was still in the Auditorium?

Avalon: Oh, right… I have a few swords stashed away in case one of them breaks.

Quinn: Are you legit that worried about if something breaks? In this fucking situation?

Dakota: Calm down, Quinn.

Quinn: No, YOU calm down you fucking Police Academy Reject!

Dakota: Reject? You take that back, you... you... idiotic scoundrel!

Lydia: Hold on, there’s still a few things that aren’t adding up…

Maggie: Awright y’all, let’s put some muscle into it! I’m fixin’ ta solve this dang case!

Luna: Yeah, we’re almost there. But I feel like the next discussion, since we’ve all secured our alibis, is the murder weapon.

Cole: T-the m-m-monster is the m-murder w-weapon!

Johnathan: Nah, the murder weapon was clearly the guillotine. I mean, what else would it be?

Lydia: But the guillotine was completely clean.

Johnathan: I mean… couldn’t it have been cleaned off?

Quinn: The fuck? How could you clean it off in a fucking auditorium?

Johnathan: Maybe it wasn’t cleaned in the auditorium…

Luna: THAT’S EXACTLY IT! 

Valerie: The hell? How can you even agree to such an absurd notion?

Luna: The trap door.

Jasmine: T-the trap door?

Luna: Yeah, it lead straight to the cafeteria. If someone wiped the blood off the guillotine, drew it back up, got out of the armor, and used the trap door, they could fall to the cafeteria and use the sink there to clean off whatever they used to clean the guillotine. Obviously, the because of death is decapitation… but something else is bothering me.

Lydia: The wooden splinters, right? I was thinking about that too. I have a theory about it.

Ben: Alright, let’s hear it.

Johnathan: Hold on… what if the murder weapon is both the guillotine and the sword?

Morgan: Whaaaat? Honey, that’s preposterous!

Lydia: Actually, no. If you put the wooden sword into the blade itself somehow, you could cause enough force to slam into a person, thus cutting off their head extremely quickly and painfully. 

Luna: That would explain why there were wooden splinters in his neck… so the killer would’ve thought that the guillotine would’ve been enough to create the illusion of the death, but the wooden sword would’ve been used for torture.

Lydia: Not quite…

Maggie: Huh? Then how in tarnation did the killer do it?

Lydia: Maybe the killer didn’t know the sword was wooden, and put it on the blade just as extra quick slicing.

Quinn: Hold on, that doesn’t make sense! How would they have put the sword into the blade if they didn’t know it was wooden?

Johnathan: I think… it’s because someone is lying to us. Cole, Morgan, Ben, or Valerie… and there’s only two of those people we know who lie their asses off…

Cole: THAT ARGUMENT IS ROCKY!

Luna: Cole, come on, he’s not insinuating that you’re the murderer at all.

Cole: NO, BUT HE’S I-IMPLYING THAT I-I-I’M A L-LIAR! I-I AM NOT A L-L-LIAR! I S-S-SAW THE M-MONSTER WITH M-MY OWN T-T-TWO EYES! AND I-I-I CAN P-PROVE IT!

Luna: This isn’t a situation where you have to defend yourself… it’s just a mere investigation…

Cole: W-WELL I C-C-CAN’T TELL Y-YOU HOW M-MUCH IT H-H-HURTS TO N-N-NEVER BE L-LISTENED T-TO! T-T-THE MONSTER U-USED THE S-S-SWORD… AND C-C-CHOPPED E-ENOCH IN H-H-HALF!

Luna: I’M GOING TO PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE! Cole, we already know the status of the body, the head was decapitated, Enoch was never chopped in half. How could you even get that wrong, you were there!

Cole: I-I-I… y-you h-h-have a p-point…

Lydia: So that just leaves one other person, yes?

Ben: You know, something’s been bothering me this entire time…

Morgan: Was it my fabulous beauty?

Ben: No. 

Quinn: HA, REKT.

Dakota: Quinn, stop.

Quinn: Freedom of speech is a law too, jackass.

Dakota: Do you even read the constitution?

Luna: Guys, do shut the fuck up.

Ben: Well, what worries me is that there are several inconsistencies with someone's argument.

Lydia: Oh, I know who you’re talking about! It’s the only other person without a trusted alibi.

Luna: THAT’S RIGHT! IT HAS TO BE YOU! Valerie, there’s something that’s been bothering me this entire time…

Valerie: Why the hell am I the subject again? I thought we all agreed I didn’t kill Enoch!

Luna: No, nobody has agreed to that yet. What bothers me is something you said during the investigation, and then something in this trial. During the investigation, when I asked if you were coming, you said “I need to stay with Valentina… in the spot where she died…”. But then, when you said Avalon had something shiny in her room, you said that you left after the investigation…

Avalon: Ah, I see where this is going. If someone were to leaving the scene of the crime, they wouldn’t say that they need to stay in the same spot. It does arouse suspicion.

Luna: Of course, I’m not saying you never went into Avalon’s room… because you had too once. To steal her suit of armor.

Valerie: WHAT? ARE YOU ACCUSING ME OF THE MURDER?

Luna: Yes. I am.

Lydia: But there’s one thing we haven’t gone over…

Luna: Oh, yeah, the letters. But now that I think about it… doesn’t it more effectively prove that Valerie killed Enoch? 

Valerie: Huh? How would that prove anything? I never heard of any letters!

Luna: Question. How do you describe your ultimate talent?

Valerie: The hell does that have anything to do with this?

Quinn: Just for the sake of this argument, answer the damn question.

Valerie: Well, I copy the voice, tone, pitch, and speech patterns of a specific person…

Luna: Hmm… and could you master all those traits?

Valerie: Well, yeah, bitch! I could effectively do them whenever I want, even when I forget the person!

Luna: Then you would have no problem translating the speech patterns onto paper, correct?

Valerie: I… WHAT? WHAT? OF COURSE NOT! NO! THAT’S FUCKING PREPOSTEROUS!

Luna: Because I found two near identical letters with the same handwriting. One from Enoch using his speech patterns, and one from Avalon, using her Naoto speech patterns. The only problem is, the day Enoch died, Avalon wasn’t using Naoto’s speech patterns. She was using Mirei Kudo’s patterns...

Lydia: Not to mention, even if she was Naoto at the time, the crime scene wouldn’t be set in the middle ages. It would be set like a forensic science lab. 

Ben: So the evidence would’ve contradicted itself, making it obvious that the true culprit behind this case isn’t Avalon.

Luna: Since Avalon can only perfect fictional characters personalities, she would never be able to copy Enoch’s personality traits.

Avalon: I mean, I would’ve told Enoch myself to meet me there. All this secrecy makes me worried.

Luna: There’s just one more thing that directly confirms this…

Valerie: OH HELL NO, YOU WON’T KILL ME! 

Quinn: Shit, she’s going off the deep end.

Valerie: THAT BASTARD DESERVED TO DIE! I COULDN’T LET HIM DO ANYTHING WRONG TO ANYONE ELSE! I WAS PROTECTING ALL OF YOU! 

Jasmine: W-wait, is she admitting to it, or not?

Valerie: I ONLY FORGED THE NOTES SO AVALON COULD KILL ENOCH HERSELF, I DID NOTHING ELSE! NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING, YOU BITCHES!

Luna: Then tell me… how that glitter is on the same shoulder as the glitter on the armor?

Valerie: WHAT GLITTER? I PUT THIS ON AFTER THE FACT, TO MEMORIALIZE THE DEATH OF MY SISTER. SO WHAT IS IT TO YOU? MY SISTER FUCKING LOVED GLITTER! IT DOESN’T PERTAIN TO THIS CASE! MY GLITTER IS ON THE RIGHT SIDE, THE ARMOR’S GLITTER WASN’T!

Luna: STOP IT RIGHT THERE!

Valerie: WHAT? 

Luna: How would you know what side of the armor the glitter was on? You never saw the armor, and I never mentioned it.

Valerie: …

Dakota: I think we broke her.

Morgan: Darlings, this might be a wonderful time to get a drink.

Valerie: Ha… HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Maggie: What in tarnation is she laughin’ bout?

Valerie: You pissants… I never thought you’d win… but that’s nothing to be surprised about, given Luna’s actual talent.

Luna: My… what? I won by a raffle, I don’t have an actual talent!

Valerie: If you hadn’t noticed by now, your true talent has already revealed itself. If you must know, then you need to move on and figure it the fuck out! Hey, Monokuma, start the voting process!

Monokuma: I’m on it!

Luna: Wait, but my talent! What is it?

Ben: You can’t just… leave a… cliffhanger… HAHAHAHA, sorry, I can’t help myself.

Lydia: Was that even a pun…

Class Trial Ends Here

Everyone looked at the screen connected to our trial seats. The machine wheel spun round and round until it finally landed on Valerie’s sprite. Then, it immediately rang “guilty”. We were right. We move on another day.

“Just one more question,” Quinn asked out of the blue, “Why? Why did you do it?”

“I’ll tell you why. He was… the devil in disguise.” Valerie growled, as if her anger had taken over her entire body.

“Is this about… Enoch’s first motive?” I asked.

“Him unknowingly cheating on his first girlfriend?” Johnathan continued, pointing it out for everyone else.

“Unknowingly? Ha! It definitely wasn’t unknowingly. I mean, if you had your memories, you’d know already. You were all there.” Valerie confirmed, which just raised more questions.

“W-we were w-w-what?” Cole stuttered.

“You were all there… to see Enoch Breston turn from the Ultimate Jackass to the Ultimate Pastor.”

Everyone stood in silence for a few seconds, until I finally spoke up.

“No. There’s no reason to believe you. You’ve lied multiple times today… you know, I wouldn’t be surprised if you had killed your own sister. For some twisted reasoning.” I angrily spoke, loud enough for my words to echo.

“Believe me or don’t, it doesn’t matter. I’ll be dead anyways.” Valerie said excitedly, prancing around like a disney princess.

“Well, since everyone is in agreement, I guess that it’s… PUNISHMENT TIME!” Monokuma exclaimed, slamming his hand on the button that he first used to kill Harold.

That’s when the screen behind us lit up once more, and on it, the words “Valerie Venzor, Ultimate Impersonator Execution: Imposter-ble” appeared on the screen. I turned around. Valerie was gone, as if by Magic. I turned back to the screen. There, Valerie was sitting alone in a dark room, with a very happy look on her face. After a few seconds, a few other large heads of Valerie appeared, all seemingly speaking words into her head. Nobody else could hear anything but the music. Her smile turned into a frown and her eyes glowed with fear. Then another Valerie appeared. This time, it was a full body version. A few other valeries who all looked exactly alike swarmed around her and whispered a bunch of stuff in her ears. Then, all but one of them disappeared. The last fake Valerie walked up, and put a gun in her hand. She then whispered something into her ears, and as if she had thought it herself, the Valerie we all knew put the gun to her head… and then the video showed a black wall, that suddenly showed a glob of blood slam against it. 

Everyone stared at the video in disgust. It wasn’t heard, but we all knew what had happened. All the fake Valeries filled the original Valerie’s head with fake thoughts, then the final one told the real Valerie to kill herself, as if she had thought it on her own.

Everyone was at a loss for words. Jasmine was holding onto Quinn’s arm, everyone else had the blankest expression on their face.

That was when we were all forced out of the trial room, and back into the school. No one spoke a single word, and then we all went back to the dorm rooms. Once we made it, the Monokuma announcement came back on, telling us it was night time.

I slammed my head onto my bed and let a single tear drop onto my floor. I had so many questions. Why was Valerie’s execution so cruel? If she wasn’t so twisted, she would’ve done something any serial killer could’ve done. But the biggest question… what was my actual talent? 

I couldn’t stand the question, so I decided to sleep on it. And as it would turn out, the next day would be a lot easier.

But there was no telling who would crack next.

End of day 5

Survivors Remaining: 11


	7. Beginning of Day 6

Dreams can sometimes be regarded as being more accurate than they appear. It’s a bit hard to imagine if you are completely unable to dream, like me. Ever since my sister committed suicide, I’ve always had a hard time falling asleep. Once I did manage to fall asleep, all I had were nightmares. Nightmares about her. Over and over again. But this didn’t feel like a dream or a nightmare. It just felt like a lost memory.

Well, you’re probably curious now, so let me just tell you exactly what has happened.

In my dream, I was sitting at a desk, with my 15 classmates. But the room wasn’t familiar. It didn’t feel like the school we were at now. But it still had that familiar look to it. But I guess that part doesn’t matter. I looked around the room. Everyone was talking to each other, even the people who would refuse to talk to each other before.

Dakota and Quinn didn’t argue, Jasmine wasn’t screaming or even talking to anyone, Avalon didn’t arrive in her suit of armor, Morgan was wearing a mens uniform, and Cole wasn’t ranting about a certain monster.

Not only that, all those who died were also in the room. Violet, Harold, Valerie, Valentina, and Enoch. Although, Enoch looked incredibly different from the Enoch we knew. He was dressed in the kind of outfit you’d expect in a movie about homeless people. Not to mention, his hair was pure white. Nobody was surprised, despite the fact that we had never seen Enoch with hair before. It seemed like it was always bald. Even when we found his decapitated head, there was no hair on it.

Violet and Harold didn’t argue about anything either, despite Violet’s sudden outburst when she died. Everything was wrong. I turned around a bit more to look out the window, and noticed that there was a giant gate in front of it, and students were pouring in. But when we got to Hope’s Peak College, there wasn’t a giant gate. I don’t know where we were, but it seems no one else did either.

Suddenly, the door to the class opened. The person who walked in was tall, blonde, and very feminine. She had basically just worn her nightgown to class. Everyone walked back to their seats, and suddenly their speech became clear as day to me.

“Mornin’, Sensei.” Quinn said, surprisingly friendly. 

“Morning, Class! Lydia, would you help me, darling?” The teacher asked.

“Of course, Ms. Fumiya.” Lydia replied, gracefully walking up to the front of the class.

But her name startled me. Fumiya? Isn’t that Japanese? Why would there be a japanese teacher at an american school? Did she also attend Hope’s Peak College? I was so involved in answering the questions that I didn’t even notice that Lydia was writing a bunch of stuff down on a piece of paper.

“So, first thing on the agenda, is the culture festival. Johnathan, since you’re the class rep, you should decide on what we’re going to do.” Lydia continued after walking up to the lectern.

“I mean, I dunno, man. I kinda want to do a sports arena, but who knows what everyone else wants.” Johnathan replied, as laid back as usual.

“Of course you’d do something about sports.” Enoch replied, in a different tone than he used to speak in. 

For some reason, no one was shocked that Enoch had said something without the words “my lamb” or “God” in the same sentence.

“Oh yeah? Then you figure something out, Jackass.” Johnathan replied.

“U-um… if it isn’t too m-much trouble…” Jasmine started, before getting interrupted by the Ultimate Magician.

“We should showcase the wondrous illusions of a haunted house!” Harold yelled.

“Well I’ll be, I think ya got a good idea there, Harold.” Maggie agreed.

“Huh… a haunted house… well, I don’t have a bone to pick with that!” Ben laughed, making one of his stupid puns.

“A haunted house… well, fear is an emotion solved with the mind, so count me in.” Valentina chuckled.

That threw me off. I had never heard Valentina chuckle or say anything she didn’t have too. That wasn’t the Valentina we knew. There was definitely something wrong.

“If that’s all, then I suppose that we’ll go with the haunted house for the culture festival. Onto other news, there’s a student council meeting. So Johnathan and Luna will both have to leave for awhile.” Lydia continued, reading off the paper.

“Huh? M-me? Why would I have to go? What’s going on?” I tried to say, but the words wouldn’t come out of my mouth. 

I felt as if I could only see what was happening, but I couldn’t control what my body did.

“Well then, let’s head out, Ms. President. You fought hard, but that’s only to be expected of the Ultimate…” Johnathan stopped, and the memory dream melted away before my eyes.

“Ultimate what?” I tried to yell, but I was still unable to speak. Afterwards, I found myself back in the chem lab, where everyone woke up. However, it was just Lydia, Ms. Fumiya, and myself.

“You two… you do know the rules between relationships between students, don’t you? How could you not tell me about this?” Ms. Fumiya spoke, glaring into our souls.

“I promise you, Luna had no idea. I’m not sure what happened, but she was unconscious during the time of the incident. I was only there to drag her out of the room.” Lydia said, trying to defend me, and possibly my innocence.

I was so dumbfounded that I couldn’t even try to speak. I had no idea what was going on. The context was all over the place. Was I in a lesbian relationship? Did I get raped? I wasn’t sure.

“Well, ever since Enoch was expelled, I was almost positive we wouldn’t have to deal with something like that again. But next time, both of you, steer clear of the bath house. Now, I need to go take a nap…” Fumiya told us, yawning halfway through.

Soon, that memory melted as well. I wasn’t sure what was happening, nor was I even able to comprehend what was going on. But then, the strangest thing happened. The next memory, it was just myself and two other guys sitting on top of the school, eating lunch.

Both of them were fairly average looking, and they both had weird ahoges that followed them around a bit.

“So, how’s the reserve course?” The more average-looking guy started, trying to break what I assume was a silence, “Toko couldn’t stop mocking it today, so I figured I’d ask you.” 

“It’s the same as it’s always been. Boring. Well, except for the fact that Sato died.” The other guy replied, like it weighed heavily on him.

“Damn, that must be tough, Senpai.” I said, without having any control over my own voice, like it was just speaking on it’s own.

“Yeah, I bet Mahiru was super sad about it. I heard some stuff from Chisa, though I’m not sure how valid it was, though.” The second guy replied to me, trying to crack a smile.

“I heard Fumiya-sensei was super angry about it too, and that she said that stuff like that isn’t going to stop.” Average-Guy said in a serious tone, looking down at what I assumed was some kind of cafeteria food.

“Fumiya-Sensei was fuming, I guess.” I laughed, regardless of my inner turmoil.

“Hey, Luna, why do you hang out with us? With your talent, you could hang out with anyone you want if you tried hard enough.” The second guy asked me.

“Because, you dolts… you guys are the only people I can relate too.” I replied, moving my head down.

“Weird that the Ultimate __________ says we’re the only people she can relate too… heh.” Average-Guy laughed.

Hold on… what was that? He said what my talent was, but I couldn’t hear him. I wanted to ask him again, but the words refused to come out of my mouth. The memory melted away as I tried to scream, but no one could hear me. It was like my own personal nightmare. One that would make no sense until I figure everything else. 

The next thing I heard wasn’t a memory, but Monokuma’s loud voice chiming into my ear. I was back in the real world, and not the memory-scape. I was twisting and turning so hard that I nearly fell of my own bed just to wake up.

I shook my head, and decided to get ready. I didn’t exactly know what was going to happen, but I felt like it was important. After changing my clothes, I went off to the cafeteria to meet up with everyone. Although with 5 people dead, I’m positive it would feel much more lonely than I imagined. 

However, I got myself up and made it to the cafeteria, where I only saw Dakota, Quinn, Maggie, and Jasmine.

“Huh? Only 4 today? What happened to everyone else?” I asked, confused.

“I’m not sure, but I think it has something to do with the dreams we had last night.” Dakota replied.

I paused. I didn’t realize Dakota had the same kinds of dreams. Nor did I know that everyone also had dreams.

“So… I assume you all know then…” I asked, holding my arm.

“Yeah, I’m also not sure how the hell Johnathan got elected class rep.” Quinn replied.

“Quinn, he’s the only person who knows how to put together a team and make them work! It’s a valiant position and I will not tolerate any insult to it!” Dakota yelled.

“Yeah? Then why not try to actually stop me before I fucking say it, dick?” 

“Did you just insult the Stantz family name? I will give you the death sentence for that!” 

“We aren’t in a fucking prison, you prick!”

“Y’all need ta hold ya horses. If Jasmine calculations are right, then sumtin prevalent in our dreams oughta be on the next floor up.” Maggie said, trying to calm down Quinn and Dakota again.

“Huh? Next floor up? You mean, the third floor?” I asked.

“Y-yeah… everyone a-already went to c-c-check it out.” Jasmine whispered, still kind of stuttering.

“Fair’s fair, y’all. We better git a move on.” Maggie confirmed.

“Hey, Dakota, Maggie, let’s go on together. Mainly because I don’t think Quinn and Dakota being in the same group would be a good idea.” I told them, offering my own idea.

“I knew I’d like ya.” Maggie agreed… I think.

“Hmm, sounds like a case I’d like to catch up with.” Dakota concurred. 

“Yeah, yeah. Do whatever.” Quinn complained.

“Dakota, if you say anything, I swear to god…” I started… but Dakota just sighed and ran towards the stairs. 

I turned my head towards maggie, and we both nodded at each other, running towards the stairs as well. Eventually, the three of us made it to the third floor, which kind of looked more like an abandoned asylum than a school.

“W-what in tarnation?” Maggie shrieked, somewhat scared.

“Hmm… seems like an interesting puzzle.” Dakota critiqued.

“Puzzle? Whatcha got goin’ in that dang head o’ yours?” 

“Guys, stuff it.” I replied, walking around the area cautiously.

“According to my reports, the Staff Room is locked, but there’s a bath house, library, and study hall on this floor.” Dakota recited, trying to take as many notes as he could.

“Y’all reckon we oughta start with the library?” Maggie asked in addition to what Dakota said.

“I doubt the bath house or study hall is really anything special… so let’s go with my gut on this.” I nodded in agreement. 

As Maggie and I headed off towards the library, Dakota tripped over the ground on accident, but got back up in an attempt to catch up with us. Soon, the three of us made it to the library, and our eyes widened in amazement.

“Dang, this here library has more books than a rodent with a degree in literacy.” Maggie joked.

“I’m almost positive that joke broke all the laws on humor.” Dakota shrugged, walking off in a different direction. 

“Hey, ya varmint! I was fixin’ ta take that back!” 

As they went off towards the fictional section, I decided to take a look around the references. 

“Hmm… I wonder if the mastermind would’ve been kind enough to give us our yearbook or something.” I said to myself, before I heard a large crash from the floor above me.

“Did somebody say yearbook? Because I have all the time in the year to look for it!” A voice yelled from above.

Obviously, the only person who would make such a stupid pun is Ben. I felt like ignoring him, but he might actually be useful. That is, until Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum came running back.

“Look y’all, we found sumthin’!” Maggie called out.

“I believe the book is also from some sort of year that has a school logo on it.” Dakota confirmed.

I slapped myself so hard in the face I almost thought it would count as a suicide.

“Ben! They found the yearbook!” I yelled to the top floor.

Just as my suspicions confirmed, Ben jumped from the top floor to the bottom and nearly broke his legs.

“If I hadn’t done experienced sumthin’ like that before, I’d make ya call yaself a yankee.” Maggie said in a serious tone.

“Well, good thing I didn’t Yank my Knee, then!” Ben laughed.

No one else did.

“Anyway, yearbook, right?” He continued.

I flipped open the book. Just as we speculated, it was definitely a school. But it definitely wasn’t our school.

“What is a “hope’s peak academy”? Everyone, please clarify your answers!” Dakota immediately rose his voice to ask the rest of the group.

“Isn’t that the school that done tried to kill one of its classes? What a hog mess.” Maggie replied, quivering.

“Well, I have found something. Under the 79th class, all of our pictures are there. Including the ones who died. Harold, Violet, The Venzors, and Enoch. But Enoch looks really different in this.” I said, looking at the page.

“Looks like Valerie wasn’t lying after all. Everyone’s talent is listed under the names. Enoch’s doesn’t say “Ultimate Pastor” at all, but actually the Ultimate Jackass.” Ben noted as well.

“Wait… but Violet’s says she’s the Ultimate Activist, not the Ultimate SJW! What mockery is this?” Dakota claimed.

After looking at the page some more, Dakota was right. Violet was listed as the Ultimate Activist. Which wouldn’t make sense with what she told me when we met, saying she wanted to be known as the Ultimate Activist. If she was already, why did she call herself the Ultimate Social Justice Warrior?

“There’s one last thing that doesn’t make sense…” Ben tried to point out as I was off in my own world.

“Wait… In loving memory of… Valentina Venzor? Huh? But, wouldn’t that mean she died before coming here? That’s impossible, we saw her with our own eyes.” I cried out.

“But y’know, sumthin’ does smell fishy. Like a cockroach eatin’ leftover pork on a lazy sunday.” Maggie replied, pondering.

“You should be given the death sentence for your terrible jokes.” Dakota muttered under his breath.

“What I mean is, has anyone ever even done touched Valentina?” Maggie asked.

Everyone stopped in place. Even in all our memories of Valentina, not a single one of them involved her touching anyone, or anyone touching her. It’s entirely possible that we did, in fact, see Valentina, but not in the way we should have.

“There’s just one more thing. The line underneath Luna’s name, where everyone elses talents are, is scratched out.” Dakota pointed out to everyone.

“My talent… so she WAS trying to hide it from me!” I screamed, not even listening to what I was saying.

“Luna, come on… we don’t know that for a fact. You need to get your head on straight.” Ben told me in an attempt to calm me down.

I slapped his hand off my back and proceeded to storm out of the room. Maggie and Dakota chased after me at the last second, managing to catch up to me just in the nick of time. Both of them were out of breath, so I stopped in place and waited for a bit.

“I think the term I know as “female law” demands that you, Luna, rest and relieve all your stress before continuing on with your investigation!” Dakota shouted, pointing directly at me.

“And where d’ya s’pose we do that, yankee?” Maggie replied in a somewhat sarcastic manner.

Immediately following Maggie’s question, Dakota points across a hall to a room only labelled as a Bath House. 

“... They had a bath house here the entire time?” I said out loud by complete accident.

As if on cue, Avalon, Lydia, and Jasmine all walked out of the areas they had been investigating. Avalon and Jasmine came out of the Study Hall, and Lydia had exited one of the class rooms. The only other place there was on the floor was a staff lounge, but there was a huge metal bar in front of it so no one could get in.

“Oh! Ohh! Luna! Hey! The study hall is so quiet, it’s almost perfect to think of new larping ideas!” Avalon called as she ran up to me, dragging Jasmine behind her.

“Oh… u-uhm… sorry I l-left Quinn… I t-think he’s with c-cole now… things g-got a bit a-awkward…” Jasmine whispered, trying not to sound too apologetic.

I looked over at Dakota with a look in my eyes that said something like “Dude, go rescue Quinn”, and he nodded, then ran off towards the second floor. 

“Awright, well, first things first, y’all ready to get naked and take a bath?” Maggie asked the group of girls as Dakota left the second floor. 

“Naked? Uhh… Oh, you’re saying we should use the bath house, right?” Lydia asked, taking a few steps forward.

“Naked? With only girls? Hmmm… I wonder if I brought my hentai cosplays…?” Avalon wondered, trailing off from reality.

“Y-you have h-h-hentai cosplays? I h-heard those w-were really h-hard jobs for w-women w-who can’t m-moan…” Jasmine whispered in reply to Avalon’s rhetorical question.

“Why are you even listening to her?” I asked.

“Well, anyway, I do think it would be great to get our minds off our situation.” Lydia said, voicing her opinion so we all get back on track.

“Welp, that’s 3 against 2, y’all! Last one in the bath is a rotten armadillo!” Maggie yelled, running off into the bath house.

Everyone followed her in, hoping that something weird or a death didn’t happen. Once we entered the bath house, we were stunned. It looked just like a bath house you’d see in japan. Two sides, one for men, and one for women. Obviously, we all went into the womens side, and begun taking our clothes off, except for Jasmine.

“C’mon, Jazzy, don’t be such a rodeo pooper.” Maggie called, taking off her red, white, and blue shirt, revealing a red, white and blue bra. 

“The politically correct term is party pooper.” I yelled back at her. 

“Just for quick note, was I supposed to be wearing panties this entire time?” Avalon called from the other side of the locker room we were in.

“Why in tarnation would ya? Let that flower bloom, c’mon! Aren’t ya a murican?” Maggie replied to Avalon in a rather boisterous tone.

“O-Of course I’m a murican! You can trust in me! I’ll roleplay as a quarter the entire time we’re in this bath!”

I nearly facepalmed before beginning to take off my own pants. Maggie had already entered the bath herself, and it seemed like she was waiting for everyone else. Avalon was next, accidentally splashing Maggie in the face with water. Lydia and I soon followed, pretty close in time, except she was a bit earlier to the bath than I was. Jasmine was last, and she tried to sit a bit farther as if she was uncomfortable with everyone.

“Dang, y’all! The water feels nice!” Maggie yelled out, stretching her arms in a relaxing position. 

“Yeah, I agree. But this is my first time to any bath house, so my opinion probably doesn’t mean much.” Lydia agreed, also relaxing a bit more than she usually does.

“So, what exactly do girls talk about in baths, anyway? I haven’t exactly shared a bath with anyone since my sister died…” I said, but somehow made the mood worse.

“How about we play truth or dare? That always seems like a great way to start a party! One time, on this forum I used to go on, everyone played truth or dare as their characters in order to practice how characters say things!” Avalon yelled excitedly. 

“U-uh… o-okay. S-s-sometimes, w-when working on an a-a-anime, my coworkers w-would do the s-same thing.” Jasmine whispered.

“Alright, y’all, who wants to go first!” Maggie laughed enthusiastically.

“Hmm… I suppose I’ll start off. Let’s see… Avalon, truth or dare?” Lydia started off.

“I shall choose truth!” Avalon called.

“Wow, a tough one right from the get go.” I noted, smiling the entire time.

We passed some time bonding over this simple yet stupid game. Maggie was the only person who could even choose dare between the five of us, and half of her dares were lack luster. Jasmine wanted her to snort like a pig, which she found hilarious for some reason. Everyone else usually picked truth, which wound up getting questions like favorite color or something. Lydia was the only person who couldn’t actually pick any questions outside of the situation we were in, which was a bit of a downer but we all moved pasted it. 

Awhile later, once things finally cooled down, the game itself was winding down. It was my turn.

“Luna, truth or dare?” Jasmine asked me, not stuttering since she was having fun and had moved closer to the group.

“Hmmm… Truth, probably.” I replied, being my mediocre self.

“Alright… out of all the surviving guys, who strikes your fancy the most?” Jasmine whispered.

“Strikes my fancy? I mean… I’m not even thinking about that stuff. But if I had to choose someone... “ I started, before being interrupted by Maggie.

“How ‘bout ya make some kinda tier list of guys? We can all do the same thing!” Maggie called out.

“Well… I suppose in that case we can all agree Cole’s at the bottom.” Jasmine noted, throwing out the obvious choice.

“I don’t exactly disagree with that… it’s not like I hate him though…” Lydia confirmed.

“I wonder if there’s a miner character in an anime I can watch to understand him better?” Avalon whispered quietly to herself.

“Well if we all agree Cole’s at the bottom… hmm… Well, for me, Johnathan’s the guy I believe I dislike the least…” I said, drifting off into my own thoughts.

“Ha! You oughta be a cheerleader, with them fancy get-ups and shit!” Maggie laughed.

“Then would be followed by Dakota or Ben… then probably Quinn… and finally, Cole.” I finished my thoughts, forming some weird list.

“Where doe Morgan rank, then?” Lydia asked me.

“Morgan’s more like a girl than any of the guys… I don’t think he could count…” Jasmine replied, “But if it were me, I’d put Quinn at the top. He may be a bit of a d-dick, but he’s nice and kind of cute when you get to know him.”

“Huh? I always thought the same thing…” Maggie said.

Everyone fell silent. Nobody other than those two could understand what was so likable about Quinn, he seemed like a dick no matter how many times you talked to him.

“Well, although Cole is at the bottom… I don’t think I can rank the rest of them…” Lydia spoke, thinking about her own list.

“Are guys not your forte, Ly-ly?” Avalon asked all cutesy.

“Not exactly… I just don’t really think I’ve ever even thought about the emotion of love… although I’ve had to translate it numerous times…” Lydia replied, deep in thought.

“Avalon thinks the same… I mean, I agree, ly-ly!” Avalon laughed, still being super cutesy for some reason.

“Avalon, why are you being so… cutesy all of a sudden?” 

“I think it has something to do with trying to find myself when I’m not in costume… but I’m having so much fun that I kinda like this personality!” 

“I neva pictured Avvy to be the kinda girl who ain’t inta relationships.” Maggie spoke aloud.

“Well, If I was in her position, I don’t think I’d have on either. Cosplayers are usually the most high maintenance people, having to spend a whole lot of money they don’t have.” Lydia said, trying to understand the circumstance logically.

“... How long have we been in here?” Jasmine suddenly asked.

I looked around before I realized that there were no clocks. We became so comfortable with everyone else that we didn’t even realize how much time had passed. 

“... Shit, everyone’s probably worried about us… we should head out.” I said, getting out of the bath and running towards a towel. 

“Just one more thing, Luna… I was wondering, would it be okay if I washed your back?” Lydia asked me.

“I… uhh… maybe next time… sorry, I don’t think I’m quite ready for a friendship of that level quite yet.” 

Lydia nodded and got out of the bath as well. As I finished drying myself off, I put my clothes back on and went out to the third floor. Everyone else slowly followed, before finally, the Monokuma announcement began playing over the intercoms quite loudly.

“Welp, I betta head back to my dorm! It was great spendin’ time with y’all!” Maggie called, running back to the dorms. 

Jasmine ran off without saying and word, and Avalon had just disappeared somewhere.

“She’ll be fine… Avalon, I mean. I think she just didn’t want the guys to try and sneak a peek at her underwear-less body…” Lydia tried convincing me.

“Y-yeah… you’re probably right…” I replied, then walked with Lydia back down to the dorms, dropping water on the floor the entire way there.

I kept thinking about what could possibly be in the staff room, but I wasn’t sure. Something bad might be happening, but I couldn’t tell. Either way, we’d figure it out sooner or later.

As I made it back to my bed, I immediately did something I don’t usually do. I decided to search through the drawers and found a dusty notebook. However, what was written in it surprised me.

The only thing the notebook said, was this.

TRUST NO ONE.

There was no context, nothing else. Just big letters written across the page telling me that I can’t trust anyone. I didn’t want to think about it, so I went to my bed and fell asleep.

But apparently, last night's dream memories weren’t the last.

End of Day 6


	8. Beginning of Day 7

I still didn’t figure out what the words “trust no one” could’ve meant, but by the time I slept on it, a few more things came to light. Or, rather, a few more memories came to light. After waking up into my first memory, I immediately checked my surroundings. In one area, I saw a calendar and checked the date. Everything up to February 14th was checked off, and the note on that date said “settle into new school”. Since everything else looked super familiar, I figured that we had all landed in Hope’s Peak America. But when I looked around the room, no one else was there. I wasn’t sure if this new dream was a memory or a nightmare.

After a few minutes, someone did walk into the room, staring directly at me and my seat. This person was our teacher, Ms. Fumiya. 

“Luna, I know this school is tough, but please don’t _____ anymore.” She said, one of her words being blurred out from memory.

“Huh?” I tried to say, but nothing came out of my mouth.

I wasn’t positive whether this was a memory or a nightmare, but I couldn’t actually hear what Fumiya said. Don’t what anymore? Did that have something to do with my Ultimate Talent?

Before I could even get a chance to hear more, the memory faded. After that, I woke up in the chem lab, with everyone else. It was just like when we first entered the school. But did we really “enter” here…? Soon, everything faded to black before I even had the chance to look around. There was nothing but pitch blackness surrounding me as I sat in my desk.

Voices arose from the darkness. All they said was the word “fake”. Nothing else. I was starting to sweat. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Nothing this time answered any questions. I wanted to scream, but I was still unable to talk. Suddenly, I woke up in my dorm in a cold sweat. I heard a scream come from the cafeteria. I decided to get dressed in my usual outfit and run directly there.

“What is the meaning of this?” Shouted Dakota as I entered the cafeteria. 

No one was dead, thank god, but Jasmine was the one who screamed, and once I saw Monokuma standing there, I figured out why.

“The mystery is starting to unravel, but I feel like it would be pointless to not present a third motive!” Monokuma told the remaining people.

“You piece of shit! We don’t need anyone else dead!” Quinn shouted.

“Y’all ignorant loons better bet ya have a dang good explanation for this here problem.” Maggie spoke, rather coldly.

“If you want to see the motive, which all of you do, I’m sure, please come to the Study Hall on the third floor!” Monokuma laughed, and then suddenly disappeared.

“Damn it... “ Ben said, rather seriously and tormented.

“Darlings, I suggest we all maintain a viable tactic for such a disaster…” Morgan spoke, in a depressed voice.

“Viable Tactic? For fucks sake, Morgan, this ain’t some fucking fashion show, you fucktwat! This is real fucking life! And even if it kills me, I’ll defend every single god damn survivor here like they were one of my animals! LUNA, YOU’RE A FUCKING BADGER NOW. DEAL WITH IT!” Quinn yelled, extremely seriously, although it was really hard to tell. 

“Despite the weird terminology, Quinn is right. From here on out, we’re in this together. No possible way I can let anyone else die!” Dakota clammored.

Everyone else plunged their fists in the air and left the cafeteria. I was the only one left. Suddenly, the same voices from my nightmare memory started talking again, saying the same word over and over. Before I went insane, I left the cafeteria and chased after the group. After awhile, we made it to the study hall. Inside, there was merely a row of chairs, one for each of us. 10 chairs for 10 people. Each of them were labelled. I found mine between Avalon and Cole, so I sat down and waited for everyone else. Monokuma then appeared again behind a lectern once everyone had been seated.

“Well now, looks like we have a full house! I created this anime specifically with the goal of despair in mind! Just as a safety precaution, this is a rare one. It was based off actual events!” Monokuma spoke, like a professor announcing a video to the class. 

“I-I-I d-d-doubt t-this w-w-will even b-be i-important…” Cole stuttered, clearly more nervous than usual.

“IF YOU SHOW US MURDER, YOU TWO-FACED MUFFIN TOP, I WILL MAUL YOU LIKE YOUR OWN KIND, STARTING FROM YOUR FUCKING CHEST!” Jasmine screamed at the top of her lungs.

“Now, now, no need to get angry, it’s simply a movie. And as a reward, upon completion, I’ll unlock the staff room that you guys couldn’t go in yesterday!” Monokuma shouted excitedly, clapping his hands multiple times. 

“Fucking hell, just play the video, you fuckhead.” Quinn said, in a super badass way no one expected. 

Monokuma gave a short laugh, then hit play. Jasmine grabbed onto Quinn's arm, and Ben somehow managed to find popcorn. I couldn’t reach over, but I doubt I’d even want Popcorn at a time like this.

Anyway, to describe what was happening, the disclaimer had popped up in the anime. Sure enough, just as Monokuma said, it was based on a true story. There were three main characters. Lion, a male who looked like a Kamen Rider mixed with a lion’s fur, Otter, a girl who looked like the Pink Ranger but with Whiskers, and some black hair out of the back of her mask. Finally, there was Zebra, who looked like the villain of the story in a full black and white outfit, with a horse mask. Next to her was a sidekick of some sort, but their name was never mentioned. 

The dialogue went as follows:

“Zebra! This is the last time you shall interfere with the love of all humanity! We shall slay you, once and for all, fucker!” Lion yelled, rather dramatically.

“Y-yeah!” Otter continued.

“Ya poor tribal morons, This here fight’s already done, and it’ll end with me a-killin’ the both of ya!” Zebra yelled in some kind of evil villany way.

After that, there was a fight scene with all kinds of grunts and stuff that continued on for what felt like 20 minutes. Lots of people got bored. Maggie and Cole were the only people still watching. Finally, as the battle came to an end, Zebra was lying on the ground, helpless. 

“You can’t fuck with us anymore, Zebra, you fucking twithead!” Lion shouted in a heroic way.

Zebra laid on the ground, coughing up blood.

“You may… have won… this time… lion… but mark my words… you will die… protecting the one… you love…” Zebra said, as she bled out, before finally passing on.

The screen finally said “fin”. As if we hadn’t noticed when the lights went off, they suddenly came back on, and the looks on everyone's faces were confused, like they had no idea what the hell happened.

“... That was the motive, right?” Lydia finally asked, after the rest of our classmates sat there in silence.

“Yep Yep! I hope you enjoyed that, since I spent a really long time working on it!” Monokuma bowed, as if he had accepted an oscar.

“That action sequence was dang near awesome! I could feel my heart racin’ like a kangaroo a-hoppin’ towards a philly cheese steak!” Maggie yelled in excitement.

“I-It was o-o-okay…” Cole said, after everything was all said and done. 

When I looked over towards other people in the row, I noticed that Dakota and Quinn had gotten up.

“Ha! Lion was totally you!” Dakota laughed, lightly punching Quinn in the arm.

“Shut the hell up, that anime was totally fictional, you fuck!” Quinn shouted.

I looked around again, then finally realized that Avalon hadn’t moved since the video began. I bent down and waved my hand in front of her face, but she didn’t budge.

“Hey… uhh… Avalon?” I asked her, trying to snap her out of whatever trance she was in.

“Huh? O-oh… sorry, I was deep in thought…” Avalon finally said, relatively sad.

“Yeah, it’s not an issue.” I said, putting my hand out so she could get up.

“Well, now that you’ve all fulfilled your deal, I’ll unlock the staff room! There’s someone there who wants to meet you!” Monokuma laughed, and then disappeared once again in a puff of smoke.

Everyone looked at each other, but not everyone left. Cole and Maggie both left for their rooms, Jasmine and Quinn both left for who knows where, so it was just Ben, Lydia, Johnathan, Morgan, Dakota, and I. Once we got the team in order, we headed off to the staff room.

Just like Monokuma said, the staff room was open. The lock on the door was broken, so we could all enter it with ease. Everyone who wasn’t me took a step back, and I gulped pretty loudly as I slowly reached for the door. However, I apparently took too long as Johnathan slammed into the door with all his might, which caused it to open hard enough that the doors flew off their hinges.

Once we finally turned our attention to the actual room, we noticed that it was almost entirely covered in blood. There were several spots that weren’t, but it was hard to find some to not get blood on our shoes. After seeing this, I finally took a few steps in. From first glance, it looked like any old staff room. However, once you look at it a bit longer, you can tell that this staff room was modified to be used as a similar situation as the one we were put in.

The staff room was used for a Mutual Killing Game, likely among the staff of Hope’s Peak America.

“Fuck…” I said, interrupting the huge silence.

“Is this was Monokuma was hiding from us? What a large discrepancy…” Dakota chimed in.

“I don’t think Discrepancy is the right word… I believe the word you’re looking for is ‘Teach-ery’.” Ben laughed.

“Now isn’t the time for jokes.” Lydia spoke in a serious tone, as she paced ahead of me in the room.

“Now that I think about it, isn’t there a weird smell coming from the closet?” Johnathan finally spoke up after remaining silent for the past hour or so.

“I smell it too, darlings.” Morgan also spoke up.

I sniffed the air and understood what the smell was. It wasn’t blood, because the entire staff room was covered in it, but it was something a bit more… fresh. Like, some sort of food, which was weird considering what we saw. I perked my nose up to see what was happening, and walked towards the closet door.

“It’s coming from in here…” I said, pointing towards the closet.

“Well, as an officer it is my duty to preserve whatever life force remains…” Dakota shouted, trying to ease all of us.

“Dude, that sounds more like a sci-fi protagonist than a police officer.” Johnathan said, lacking emotion.

Regardless of the joke, Dakota opened the closet door, which actually revealed a new room, not stained in blood, but the smell that was so fresh and smelled like food, what we thought was food, anyway, was actually the dead body of our former teacher, Ida Fumiya.

“What the hell?” Johnathan shouted, immediately being overcome with rage and fear.

“T-this isn’t okay! How could Fumiya be dead? Are you kidding me?” Dakota screamed.

Soon afterwards, a video in the back started playing. It showed Fumiya in what seemed to be her final moments. We all gathered around the fireplace to watch it.

“If you found this video, I’ve probably starved to death already, possibly dying in my sleep. Anyway, this video is specifically for all my students, the ones who have been forced into this Mutual Killing Game. It might be awhile before you find this, and some of you may already be dead. But if worse comes to worse, I want you all to know something. Do not let Cole out of your site, whatever you do. He is mentally unstable and the more exposure to this game he gets, the more his mind goes. Another thing of note, do not believe anything Valentina Venzor says. The Valentina you know isn’t the real one. The real Valentina is dead. She has been dead since before the game and no one has found her body. Last thing, right before I died of starvation, locking in this god damn staff room, I left one of my prized paintings. It’s pretty great, but it’ll also help you out the most. Once you guys find this secret room, check inside the fireplace. There’s nothing really in there, but you’ll see what I’m talking about. Okay, I have to go now, but I love you all. You’re all my favorite students out of all of Hope’s Peak Academy. Kick the masterminds ass.” Fumiya said seriously, then reached out for what might’ve been the power button and turned off whatever she was recording with. 

Dakota then stood up and walked over to the dresser, where there sat a camcorder, and picked it up.

“I think this is what she recorded that message with.” Dakota said, eyeballing the camcorder.

“I agree with that motion!” Ben joked, “Get it? Because Motion Capture?” 

I sighed loudly, and then bent down to peer into the fireplace. I did see a small picture resting in the back of it, so I reach in and picked it up. Immediately, I placed it on the nearest table without a second thought.

Once I looked at the picture, I finally saw what Fumiya wanted us to see. Seeing as she was the Former Ultimate Artist, what she left us was exactly what you’d expect. A portrait of each of us, right down to the last detail, almost lifelike. I handed out them to everyone there, with their face, and put aside the ones for the people not in the room. After everyone took theirs, I placed the 6 people no longer with us: Violet, Harold, Valerie, Valentina, and Enoch. Each of them looked just as they did when we got here, especially Enoch. They were all near perfect replicas in 2D format.

“S-she… did these… for us…” Dakota said, crying.

Everyone cried in silence, weeping for both the drawings and the death of our sensei, Fumiya, until suddenly, I heard something. Like a cry for help.

“Guys, do you hear that?” I asked the group.

“Only the sound of gentle tears, honey.” Morgan said.

For a second, nothing happened, but then the sound came again and I slammed my fist into the wall where I thought it was coming from. Fortunately, the wall wasn’t that thick, but my hand did start to bleed out. I didn’t care. I continued to tear down the wall until a body dropped from behind. But not just any body, this one was still alive.

“DAKOTA, MORGAN, JOHNATHAN, GET HER TO THE NURSE'S OFFICE RIGHT THE FUCK NOW!” I screamed, as they gathered around her and ran straight for the nurses office, picking her up.

Now, it was just myself, Ben, and Lydia. We were all stunned.

“How did you do that?” Ben asked, shocked at my skill.

“I don’t know. But I do know one thing. This dead body isn’t Fumiya. This dead body… is the teacher of the 77th Class, Chisa Yukizome.” I replied.

“How did you know?”

“Actually, I caught that too. The back of these pictures are signed by someone who was trying to impersonate Fumiya-sensei. She never signed her letters with “Sincerely” or crap like that, just her name in super fancy cursive.” Lydia replied.

“And the person in the video, although she looked like Fumiya, she didn’t sound like the same Fumiya we knew. She probably died yesterday, after using the last of her energy to encase Fumiya in the wall. That’s why the door was locked. The game itself wasn’t over at the time…” I continued on.

“So the dead body here is Chisa, and not Fumiya?” Ben asked, as a final thought.

I shrugged.

“Yeah, basically.” I finally replied.

“... Dude, with all the shit that’s happened today, I need a rest. I’m gonna head back to my dorm room. Peace.” Ben said, leaving the area.

“...Luna, do you believe Fumiya remembers everything?” Lydia asked.

“I think she will. She just needs to rest. In the meantime, we should deliver these pictures. They’re definitely Fumiyas, despite what the back says.” 

Lydia nodded, and she went on her way. I got Avalon and Quinn's, she took Cole, Jasmine, and Maggie’s.

So my first stop was to find Avalon, which was actually not that hard. She was still in the Study Hall, or, well, in front of it. It seems like she had the energy to move after all that happened.

“Oh, hey Luna.” She said, in a sort of disappointing way.

“You okay, Avalon?” I asked, even though the answer was a bit more than obvious.

“The blacked out sidekick in the video… was me…” she replied.

I stopped, then patted her on the back and hugged her.

“Don’t worry, that silly video is nothing more than Monokuma’s way to fuck with our heads. I’m sure nothing bad’s going to come out of it. In any case, I came here to give you this.” I said, handing her the picture of herself that Fumiya drew, in full body armor, but with her real face showing out of her helmet. 

Immediately, Avalon’s frown turned right side up and hugged me.

“Thanks for reminding me of this Luna… Fumiya always saw the real me, and after she didn’t come with us, I didn’t know who I was. I now have a glimmer of hope to hold onto.” She cried, still hugging me.

“Avalon… Fumiya’s alive… but resting in… the nurses office…” I said, while being choked and in various amounts of pain.

“OH SHIT, I GOTTA GO SEE HER!” Avalon yelled, then dashed off in the other direction. 

I sighed heavily, trying to gather as much air as I could, then walked into the Study Hall.

That was when I figured out that it was a waste to gather that air, because the moment I stepped into the Study Hall, I was unable to breath…

End of Daily Life


	9. Day 7 Continues: Deadly Life

Never in my life had I ever seen something so ridiculously insane. It wasn’t even natural the way they did it. I dropped all of my papers, and they immediately fell to the floor the moment my hands flew open.

Directly in front of me, hanging on the wall like a poster for a romance movie, were the dead bodies of Quinn Levich and Jasmine Benitz, arranged in a heart shape. They were holding hands and had their feet heels connected to each other at the back, like the movie caption was “love goes beyond death”. 

I really, really wanted to scream. But my mouth refused to move and my vocal box wouldn’t even let me whimper. I was so terrified at what I was looking at, that I couldn’t even move my feet in the direction of the door. But then, another person ran in and finally snapped me out of it. 

But it moved onto him, Dakota. 

“F-fuck…” He said, which was the first time I had ever heard him cuss.

I watched as Dakota slammed his hand into one of the tables, pounding it with every single inch of his strength.

“FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK.” He repeatedly said as he slammed his fist in the table.

I couldn’t even imagine the pain he must’ve been feeling. Quinn was the only person he knew before now, and with him dead… he might not have anyone. 

He continued to pound his fist into the table, just as Ben entered the room.

“Dakota, can you please quit it with the fisticuffs? Heh, get it? Fisticuffs? Because you’re a cop? And you’re using fists?” Ben said.

Dakota nearly punched Ben in the face for that remark, but I managed to hold him back before he could. As I moved Dakota out of the way, Ben finally saw why Dakota was so angry.

“... I’m so sorry…” He replied, with an actual tear streaming down his face.

Over the intercom, Monokuma’s voice sprang into action. 

“A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time has passed, we will conduct a class trial! Please stay tuned!” Monokuma’s voice rang over the intercom, gathering everyone else who was in the area.

After a short while, everyone who remained made it back to the study hall. Not everyone had a reaction, but not a lot of people even said anything.

“Hold on… this is something similar to the killing game at Hope’s Peak Academy… two deaths?” Lydia asked.

“Thaaaaaaaaat’s right!” Monokuma shouted, popping up from nowhere, “But now we have… the monokuma file!”

Monokuma put the file on the table and then immediately left once more.

“... What a big help he is…” Ben spoke, angrily.

“A lot of the information is here this time. Time of death was around 5:35, which was just after we finished the anime and left for the staff room. The Murder Weapon was hammer and nails, and the injuries are gaping holes in the stomach, lungs, hands, feet… and heart.” I read out loud, so everyone was able to hear.

“Stabbed in the heart?” Lydia asked the group.

“And who's to blame?” Dakota continued, attempting to lighten the mood.

“Well, I guess we have to figure out…” I said, before being interrupted by another one of Ben’s lame puns.

“Who gave love a bad name!” Ben shouted with a light-hearted attitude.

After holding back a slap to the face I was going to give Ben, I turned around and decided to investigate the bodies of Quinn and Jasmine. From what I could tell, it seems both of them were stabbed in the same areas, namely, the heart, lungs, and stomach, while also being hit in the head with the hammer in the same spot for both.

“They’ve been stabbed in the same areas. Literally.” I spoke, trying to let everyone know of my progress.

“Hold on a moment… I wonder if they were holding hands when they died?” Lydia asked the group.

“Nah, sugar, there’s no way they could’ve gotten into that position before they died…” Morgan spoke, strutting towards the bodies.

“Are you saying someone put them in that position?” I asked him.

“Darn tootin’. An’ I bet it was Avalon! She was in here the whole time.” Maggie said instantly, pointing her finger towards Avalon.

“Huh? W-what? No, I wasn’t in here at 5:30! I went back to my dorm after we finished the anime… Although I didn’t see anything… my head was down the whole time…” Avalon said, acting super sad about what she did.

“I can confirm, I saw her as we rushed Fumiya to the nurse's office.” Dakota concluded, solidifying Avalon’s alibi.

“But if it ain’t you, then who?” Maggie asked.

“Actually, there is another idea. You see, Monokuma left us a second DvD, which contains the “lost second episode” of the anime we saw.” Lydia said as she placed the dvd into the player.

“Damn, I probably need to ease some stress with that.” Johnathan yawned.

As the rest of us gathered around the video player, pulling the screen down so we don’t have to look at Jasmine or Quinn’s lifeless body, to watch the second episode. Immediately, the scene started off with a wedding.

“Oh, how romantic! A man and a woman sharing an eternal bond…” Morgan clamored loudly.

“What? You support straight marriage?” Avalon asked.

“I support all marriage, darling. My tastes… fluctuate, so to speak.” 

After the anime zoomed into the marriage, it was shown that the marriage itself was between Lion and Otter, but a third character appeared, that being a priest. The only priest we knew was Enoch, and we couldn’t of been more right.

“My children, do you accept you, your husband, and the lord in holy matrimony?” The priest asked the loving couple.

“We do.” Otter and Lion said simultaneously.

“Well, if any of you lambs have any objections…” 

“I h-h-have one!” A stuttering voice shouted from the audience.

“Miner Disaster…” Lion started, “coming from Zebra to stop us from being happy?” 

“W-W-WHAT? I N-N-NEVER S-STOPPED A W-W-WEDDING!” Cole screamed loudly.

“Cole, hush.” Lydia said quietly, moving her finger to her lips.

After that, it was another 15 minute fight scene, which seemed to drag on forever. Finally, after all that ended, and half the wedding attendants ended up dead, including the priest, it was just Lion and the Miner. 

“You… killed everyone I fucking loved… THIS IS WHY I HATE HUMANITY!” Lion screamed, unleashing some gigantic ball of who-fucking-knows-what, and vaporizing the Miner.

Then the anime ended, before we could figure out what the hell was going on.

“So… I think it’s safe to assume that Quinn is Lion.” Dakota claimed.

“I agree with that…” Lydia confirmed. 

“The Priest is definitely Enoch… although he didn’t need to die a second time…” I said, trying to word my sentence carefully.

“Otter never really spoke… I wonder who she could’ve been?” Avalon wondered aloud.

“... I’d bet Jasmine, darlings. Jasmine was never much for talking, which is fairly ironic.” Morgan answered, wording his sentence terribly.

“Miner D-D-Disaster i-is c-c-clearly m-me… although I-I’d NEVER d-do something l-l-like interrupt a w-w-wedding…” Cole stuttered angrily.

“Zebra must be someone who is jealous of Quinn and Jasmine’s relationship… that could be anyone.” I spoke, without actually thinking.

“What, you calling me gay or something?” Johnathan asked in a rather harsh tone.

“You don’t have to love the guy to be jealous of him… you could be jealous he got Jasmine, you could be jealous of them having a relationship, or you could be jealous of Jasmine having Quinn. There are several possibilities.” I continued on, trying to reason with Johnathan.

“... Fair point, dude.” He replied immediately.

“Now, the only other thing about the video is the fact that Zebra sent Miner to stop the wedding, meaning whoever Zebra is, they didn’t want to be directly involved in case they got hurt.” Lydia said, trying to continue the conversation. 

“Y’all are way off. Y’see, Zebra didn’t want to see the pain of whomever Miner was gon’ attack, so they stayed in the background.” Maggie spoke.

“Huh… I didn’t think of it that way…” I replied instantly. 

“I think that’s it for the video. I’ll head over to the library, see if I can find anything.” Ben spoke up.

“I’ll help out too. An officer’s goal is to protect the people, so I will too.” Dakota followed on.

Dakota and Ben then suddenly left the room, heading straight for the library.

“Alright, so what’s left in here?” I asked everyone.

“This hammer.” Lydia called out.

“I found some nails, sugar, and not the painted kind.” Morgan replied to my question.

“Oooh… A book… with the word Q-U-I-N-N on it!” Avalon called out.

“Wait, Quinn’s first motive?” I said, running towards Avalon.

“Yup, yup! Says here, when Quinn was starting out, he accidentally killed a baby koala and hid it under some bamboo.” Avalon said, starting out cheerfully, but slowly falling into sadness.

“I see, so Quinn never told anyone about it, and went on to become the Ultimate Zookeeper.” Lydia understood.

“Killin’ a koala, that’s low even for ‘im.” Maggie quickly replied.

“W-w-what a d-d-douche…” Cole stuttered back, agreeing with Maggie.

“Come on, darlings, it’s not like it was his fault. Maybe it was solely an accident.” Morgan spoke up, trying to defend Quinn’s actions.

“Maybe we’ll never know. Y’know, because he’s dead.” I replied, right before heading off towards the exit.

“If you’re going to the library, I’ll join you.” Lydia said, trying to grab onto my arm.

“Huh? Any reason?” I asked, sort of surprised.

“The library is one of those places where I like spending my time in. There’s a phrase I read once while translating something from german that I grew to love, “Lesen ist eine edle Sache”. It means “Reading is a noble cause”. It basically says that the quality of reading is a good one to have, so I continued to do it… that’s how I became the ultimate translator… through reading everything I could.” Lydia said, blushing at her finally revealing her true self.

“Man, I wish I could read.” I said sarcastically, heading straight for the library.

“H-hey! Hold up!” Lydia shouted, chasing me out of the Study Hall.

After a few minutes of friendly bickering, we made it into the Library, where Ben and Dakota were waiting.

“Hey, Luna! I think I found a great clue! It’s a real page turner!” Ben yelled at me, laughing at his own joke. 

I dragged Lydia over to where Ben and Dakota were standing, and then lifted up both the books that were on the table.

“History of Voice Acting? An Idiot’s Guide to Zookeeping?” I recited, reading the titles out loud.

“Yeah, but look inside. Jasmine and Quinn both checked out the book relating to the others talent… yesterday.” Dakota chimed in.

“Jasmine checked a book out on zookeeping, and Quinn checked out a book on Voice Acting?” Lydia asked, wondering to herself.

“Wait, how could they check out a book? There’s no librarians here.” I replied quickly.

“Unless the Librarian was part of the Staff Killing Game…” Ben responded.

“It’s definitely a possibility.” Lydia replied to Ben’s remark.

“Alright, I just dug up a point for Ben!” Ben yelled enthusiastically.

“But why would they check these books out?” I said, placing the books back on the table.

But over the intercom, came that familiar voice no one wanted to hear.

“Upupupu! Time’s up, everyone! Please head straight to the trial room! You should know exactly where it is. I don’t need to explain it.” Monokuma shouted over the intercom. 

All of us looked at one another, then nodded our heads. We’ll figure out who killed Quinn and Jasmine. We all headed directly to the trial room, with nothing to lose.

After around 20 minutes, we all finally made it safely to the elevator with everyone else. Everyone who remained just glared at each other, but that’s when I remembered my note: Don’t Trust Anyone. I knew I was going to be betrayed by someone who I had some connection with, given who was remaining, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of this being a complete set up. Not even 2 days since the last killing, and someone already cracked. Or this could be something different. 

No one said a word as we moved into the elevator and moved slowly towards the class trial room. The tension was at its peak. Hard to see what could happen, who would even be able to top something like this. It wasn’t just out of a horror movie, but also like something out of a romantic comedy. 

Finally, we all made it to the Trial Room. Monokuma sat atop of his throne, and everyone gathered around the circle.

“Let’s hope for the best.” Lydia said to everyone in the circle.

“T-this b-b-better be the l-l-last one…” Cole stuttered again.

“We just need to chill out and let Monokuma explain the rules again.” Johnathan replied.

“Me? Explain the rules? You should know the rules already! Find the murderer, or else everyone but the murderer dies!” Monokuma laughed.

“Pretty much sums it up.” I spoke, agreeing with Monokuma.

“Now… it’s time to figure out who killed my best friend… and his Otter…” Dakota said, slamming his fist into the lectern.

Class Trial Begins Here

Luna: Okay, how about we start off with a basic understanding of the case?

Lydia: Both Jasmine and Quinn had the same holes in the same areas, and both of them had been hit on the head with a hammer.

Ben: We know that the time of death was 5:30, and other than that… there’s nothing more to dig up…

Johnathan: Uhh… are you guys forgetting about the anime?

Cole: T-T-That anime d-doesn’t e-e-exist!

Johnathan: Says the guy who was actually interested in it.

Luna: For christ sake, can we stop letting Cole debate?

Cole: I-I-I have a r-r-right to d-debate here!

Morgan: Let’s just ignore him, darlings.

Dakota: So, we know that Lion is Quinn and Otter is Jasmine… and Miner was Cole…

Maggie: Y’all better start off wit’ figgurn’ out who that dang zebra is…

Dakota: Hold on, maybe the Miner isn’t important.

Cole: OF C-C-COURSE I AM! 

Avalon: THEY’RE ALL ANIMALS!

Luna: Thanks, Avalon, for that super interesting piece of knowledge.

Avalon: I shall always be of service!

Dakota: Quinn loved animals… he always used to say to me… “Dude, Animals are so much better than humans. Humans are filled with grief, envy, and it makes me fucking sick. Animals are nice enough to let you pet them, except for that damn Koala.”

Luna: Wait, how do you know about that?

Ben: An interesting paw-spective.

Dakota: You guys might not understand this, but I’m Quinn’s Ultimate Best Friend. I was the only member of the police force who understood his feelings. Dude might’ve hated me, but he hated me the least. That’s why… That’s why I’ll avenge his death by solving this case!

Morgan: Sugar, you must be a onion I’m chopping because that made me cry.

Lydia: Okay, so explain this whole animal thing, Dakota.

Dakota: First off, Lions. Quinn loved lions. Proud, Strong, Kings of the Jungle. Everyone respected them. That’s who Quinn always wanted to be, just like a lion. Otters, Quinn always said “Fuck, dude. If I ever start dating someone, I’d like them to be an otter. Small, adorable, cuddly, and they understand why humanity is shit. If I ever meet someone like that, I’d marry them on the spot.”

Maggie: I’d say that there description fits Jasmine to a Q.

Cole: T-the e-e-expression is t-to a t-t-T.

Maggie: I know, ya fried horseshoe.

Luna: So what about Zebras?

Dakota: He always said that Zebras were jealous of Lions, for some unknown reason. I’m pretty sure he meant horses, but he insisted he meant Lions. Never exactly explained that one.

Lydia: I remember reading somewhere the term “stolt hestrinn aldrei móðga konunga”, which translates to “prideful steed never insult the kings” in icelandic. 

Dakota: Oh yeah, now I remember. He said he hated Zebras because they were forced to run away from the lions, which was supposedly an insult to him. If you run away from royalty, you’re just living in darkness, he’d say.

Luna: So… explain this in terms of the anime.

Dakota: Zebra sent Miner to disrupt the wedding, right? That could be a sign of the Zebra running away from the Lion. 

Morgan: So hold up, is Zebra the killer? Or are they not the killer?

Lydia: the Zebra is the killer, and the reason they’re the killer is that they went against the plot of the anime. Instead of the first time, where they stayed in the background, instead they did it in reverse. In short, Zebra was disguised as the priest. 

Johnathan: So Enoch’s still alive?

Lydia: In the anime, he was. But then he died, probably as a way for Monokuma too…

Luna: Fuck with our heads… I see… so the Killer, instead of sending the Miner to try and kill Jasmine and Quinn, disguised themselves as a person of interest, and killed Jasmine and Quinn during that time.

Avalon: But wouldn’t that mean the Monokuma File was lying to us?

Monokuma: I would never lie about the time of death! Well… except in this case. My watch was broken.

Johnathan: Monokuma has a watch?

Luna: So the true time of death is unknown… but we do know it was between the time my group went to the staff room, and the time I went to deliver the pictures to Jasmine and Quinn.

Dakota: I SHOULD ARREST YOU FOR THAT!

Luna: Huh? Dakota? Why?

Dakota: Just because Monokuma’s watch is broken doesn’t mean that we don’t have a time of death! I can prove it!

Luna: If you’re just going to use Avalon’s alibi, then you should realize that it’s null and void at this point.

Dakota: Well alright, Ultimate Princess, but if you’re so certain, then why don’t you explain what time it was… after the anime ended!

Luna: I’M GOING TO PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE! Dakota, the lights went out during that time, it’s impossible to know what time it was after that. We just assumed it was 5:30 originally because that’s what Monokuma said.

Dakota: I… Oh… I better get the fisticuffs.

Lydia: Okay then, I suggest we all give our alibis for after we all left the staff room. Luna, Ben, and I were together.

Johnathan: Morgan, Dakota and I carried Fumiya’s body to the nurse's office, so we’re out.

Luna: That leaves Maggie, Cole, and Avalon. 

Avalon: I was totally looking at the floor the entire time, but Dakota did say he saw me.

Dakota: She’s right. I definitely saw her.

Cole: I-I-I was w-w-waiting f-for the m-m-monster to k-k-kill the n-next students!

Morgan: So, no alibi.

Maggie: I was jus’ restin’ in mah room, like a cat after slurpin’ up all them apple fritters.

Luna: Wait, hold on, so Cole and Maggie don’t have alibis? But if we know Cole is Miner Disaster, then…

Johnathan: I CAUGHT THAT ASSUMPTION! Luna, aren’t you heading into this too fast? We still need to figure out why they were holding hands…

Luna: I’M GOING TO PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE! Johnathan, we’ve already figured everything else out. They were holding hands to symbolize the wedding, which means the killer saw the second part of the anime before we did. The stab in the hearts and lungs symbolize that they couldn’t live without the other, like a generic romance movie that I would love to gouge my eyes out if I watched it. We already know everything about this case…

Lydia: So there’s only one other person…

Maggie: N-now hold on a dang secon’ there… How would I be able ta kill anyone? Neither of ‘em like me anyhow…

Luna: That’s why you had to send someone who was in the dark about the entire thing… Cole. To copy the second part of the anime Jasmine nor Quinn got to see.

Cole: S-s-she’s right… M-Maggot told m-me to b-b-bring Jasmine and qu-qu-Quinn to the s-s-study hall… b-but I d-d-didn’t h-hear the p-purpose…

Johnathan: Damn, sending the miner to do the dirty work… 

Ben: Hahaha! Dirty work? Because he’s a miner right? That’s sure to be a Miner Disaster!

Morgan: I’m about to drag both of you out of here…

Monokuma: If you drag either of them out, all three of you will get killed! Attendance to the class trial is mandatory! I just implemented that rule about 10 seconds ago.

Morgan: Well, my darlings, it was nice knowing you all.

Maggie: Y’all still don’t got no proof… 

Luna: I’M SORRY, BUT SHUT UP! Actually we do have proof. The anime is our proof.

Maggie: What in tarnation?

Luna: In the end, the true culprit of the case… was Zebra. In other words, Maggie Merc. Although the true story is a bit more twisted.

Lydia: Instead of the Zebra being jealous of the Lion… the Zebra was actually jealous of the otter. 

Dakota: Ah, I see. Zebra wasn’t running away from the Lion, the Zebra was trying to stop the Otter from marrying into royalty. 

Johnathan: So like… was Zebra a good friend who hated Lion or was it something… more?

Ben: If we put all our assumptions together…

Luna: Zebra was in love with the Otter, and the wedding break up wasn’t to kill Otter, but to kill Lion, and the Miner messed it up, because he was in the dark about the reasoning behind the wedding.

Morgan: Hold on, how exactly are we coming up with this, darlings?

Luna: Because once we know who Zebra is, everything will become clear.

Maggie: Alright, enough! Just fuckin’ enough Arready! I ain’t no half ass dolphin wannabe… and I ain’t able to kill nobody!

Lydia: Hold on… the first time, you said “Y’all still don’t got no proof”, which is a double negative, and the second time, you said “I ain’t able to kill nobody”, which is also a double negative… you really mean that you knew we had proof and you are able to kill someone.

Maggie: I ain’t relying on your fancy hocus-pocus words, I ain’t got no lies. 

Lydia: So you do lie?

Maggie: I SAID I AIN’T GOT TIME TO MESS WITH NO HAS-BEENS!

Lydia: So you do have time to mess with has-beens?

Maggie: I AIN’T NOT GONNA UNDERSTAND NO INCOMPREHENSIBLE JIBBER JABBER!

Johnathan: Slow down, my head hurts…

Luna: I think she understands us perfectly. She’s wording her sentences in such a way just to confuse us.

Maggie: I AIN’T NEVER GONNA NOT UNDERSTAND A BUNCH-A NON-JACKWAGON SHISH KABOBS!

Luna: Then explain who would else would have any motive to stab both Jasmine and Quinn in the heart.

Maggie: I… uhh… dang nabbit. Fine, ya want the real story? I’ll give ya a real story! I ain’t no murderer, cause I ain’t like my mom… I ain’t like my mom I ain’t like my mom I ain’t like my mom I ain’t like my mom…

Luna: THAT’S RIGHT! YOU’RE THE LAST ONE!

Ben: So I guess it’s time to vote?

Monokuma: VOTING AHOY, MATEYS!

Maggie: I ain’t like my mom I ain’t like my mom I ain’t like my mom I ain’t like my mom I ain’t like my mom I ain’t like my mom I ain’t like my mom I ain’t like my mom…

Class Trial Ends Here

I pulled my vote for Maggie and watched as the machine spun around and around, before finally landing on Maggie’s face. The words “Guilty” light up bright and coins flowed out of the machine.

“Wow! Three for Three! You all really got a knack for this…” Monokuma gloated.

“I ain’t like my mom… I ain’t like my mom… I ain’t like my mom… I ain’t like my mom…” Maggie muttered continuously under her breath.

“Alright, cretin, you have 3 seconds to explain why you murdered my best friend!” Dakota said, nearly slamming his fist into her throat.

“Twas a declaration of war… two sides, complete opposites, in a romeo and juliet scenario… I couldn’t have their kid end up like that…” Maggie said, almost crying.

“Huh? I knew Quinn hated humanity, but Jasmine… loved humanity?”

“Darn… Tootin’… Nothin’ good evuh comes outta a bad marriage… I should know that betta than anyone…” Maggie said, starting to cry.

“Hold on a minute… do you mean… your parents were like that?” Lydia asked.

“No wonder she said “I ain’t like my mom” so much…” Morgan said to himself.

“My mom… was a Nazi… and my dad, he fought germany in world war 2… they fell in love, got married, had me… then divorced 2 years later because uh difference of opinion…” Maggie cried, “I can fix it… I can fix this country… I can’t die right now… I NEED TO SAVE EVERYONE FROM THE FATE I WAS GIVEN! I never had a choice… I was born under the roof of a child murderer and a veteran… I shouldn’t feel shame… but I do…” Maggie cried, lying on the ground.

“So… you weren’t in love with Jasmine or Quinn, you were just protecting them from themselves by killing them… That’s still a terrible reason to kill someone, though. But why the tacky romance poster-like stance?” I asked, trying to not give any sympathy.

“They wanted to be wed… I was a registered pastor… with Enoch gone, I couldn’t have asked him… I slammed nails in their hearts… cryin’ the whole time… I became my mother… Sumthin’ I swore I’d neva do…” Maggie continued, still crying, “This place is hell… ya gotta get outta here… save the world. I understand ya talent now, ya the only person who can do this…” 

“What a wonderful little chat. Good thing that it’s PUNISHMENT TIME!” Monokuma cheered.

“I’m sorry… father… I ain’t the little girl you wanted no more…” Maggie said, as she wiped the tears from her eyes and got dragged by Monokuma into the execution room.

Maggie and Monokuma then disappeared, and suddenly Maggie showed up on the screen, exiting the school. Everyone was shocked that Maggie could leave the school during her execution, but we knew her fate was inevitable. A few seconds of her skirt flapping in the air, a helicopter came down and a hand stuck out from inside, seeming to ask Maggie to get on. Maggie closed her eyes and got on the helicopter. That’s when the title appeared:

Maggie Merc: Ultimate Patriot Execution: Half Mast Hoist

When Maggie opened her eyes again, there was no one on the helicopter, and it was falling rapidly. Quickly, she tried to look through the helicopter, but found there were no lifejackets or parachutes. So, she apparently trusted her luck, and jumped out, falling towards the ocean. Suddenly, a bald eagle grabbed her by the talons, to which she started bleeding out in pain. After a few seconds of flying, the Bald Eagle dropped her, and she fell through the air until having her gut ripped open by a flag pole, while falling towards the bottom. At the very bottom of the pole, Monokuma stood there, pulling a string and saluting Maggie, while the video zoomed out to show the American Flag at Half Mast.

The video faded to black, and everyone was absolutely terrified at the result.

“Fuck… that wasn’t an execution… that was torture…” Dakota said with the most pale look on his face.

“America… can be so cruel…” Ben said, starting to cry.

“She killed our friends… so they didn’t turn into her parents… the amount of abuse she must’ve went through must’ve been insane…” Lydia noted.

“I-I’ve had enough… I-I-I can’t d-d-do this a-anymore… s-someone… kill me…” Cole stuttered, backing up slowly. 

Soon, everyone ran out of the room, except for me. I stood there in front of the screen, the screen that killed Valerie, Harold, and Maggie. I squinted my eyes, and walked out of the room. I will figure out who the mastermind is. Once I do that, Everything will be over. 

That’s what my talent is. I’m not lucky. I’m not a fighter. But I’m competitive.

That’s what she said to me. Please don’t win anymore.

My name is Luna Thates. I am the Ultimate Champion.

End of Day 7

Survivors Remaining: 8


	10. Beginning of Day 8

If I had to describe last night in a single word, I’d probably still choose dreadful. 

Although Maggie was straight down in shit creek without a paddle, I wasn’t able to forget the amount of pain and anger she held when she died. Regardless of what I was able to remember, Maggie’s death was gruesome, and I was very angry with Monokuma after the fact.

If you want to know what happened last night, I fell asleep. Not in the class trial room, but I did manage to walk all the way back to my own room without interruption. That was basically my night, but today was going to get worse. 

I nearly fell out of my bed at the alarm of the Monokuma announcement still playing. For the most part, my clothes cushioned my fall, but it still stung when I tried walking. I didn’t bother changing clothes today, I just ran straight to the cafeteria, gasping between bursts of running. Once I managed to get there, I saw Lydia, Jonathan, Avalon, and Morgan sitting at the usual spot. I looked around the room for Dakota or Cole, but I couldn’t see either of them.

“What’s going on with Dakota?” I called to the group.

Lydia motioned me over to the table to listen, so I moved both my legs there as quickly as I could, and sat down.

“Dakota’s still pretty upset about Quinn’s death, and Cole hasn’t come out of his room yet.” Lydia replied in a hushed voice.

“Quinn’s death was pretty bad, dude. Like, I think Dakota has never cussed before Quinn died and stuff.” Jonathan continued. 

“Damn, seriously? I guess it would be pretty difficult to deal with, and I’d like to think Quinn would’ve done the same thing if he was in Dakota’s position.” I replied in a serious, but angry tone.

“But it’ll all be okay, darlings, I believe the last floor has opened up!” Morgan yelled, trying to bring the mood up.

“Yeah, but it’s pretty disappointing.” Avalon said in a depressed voice.

Avalon was in a new costume today, which I assume was to help with her mourning, as it was a near perfect replica of the girl from The Ring. I doubt anyone was able to remember who the hell she even was, but everyone just continued to call her by her actual name.

“So, you already checked it out, Avalon?” I asked her, attempting to understand the new situation.

“Yeah. Not much was even up there. Some lockers, some art, a haunted house, some classrooms, an office…” Avalon listed off, sounding bored after every item.

“Hold on, did you say Haunted House?” I asked quickly, as something immediately returned to recent memory. 

“Yeah. Not that exciting, though.” 

I paused for a moment, jotting several things down in my head.

“... There must be something up there…” I said out loud, realizing what was happening.

“Ben went up there a few minutes before you got here, so I’ll go with you.” Lydia replied in a more uplifting tone.

“Y’know, I need to see this for myself. I think I remember what Luna’s remembering.” Jonathan said casually.

“I’ll stay here with grudge girl, you sugar cubes have fun!” Morgan called out as we left the cafeteria and made our way upstairs.

Lydia nearly fell right before we hit the top floor, which we knew was the top floor because there weren’t any floors above it. Once we finally got her up, we moved a few flights up to hit the final floor of the building. Once we got there, I looked around. What Avalon said was fairly accurate, there was a locker room, and art room, a haunted house, and an office, along with a few classrooms. 

“So… where to first?” I asked the others, hoping to get an actual response.

“Yo, didn’t you say Ben was up here?” Jonathan immediately asked Lydia, trying to understand the situation.

“I’m sure he was, but I don’t really know which room.” Lydia replied, looking in most directions.

“Well, I’m alright with anywhere first. As long as it isn’t the Haunted House. That shit freaks me out, man.” Jonathan replied, showing some actual emotion in his speech.

“I… have to agree with Jonathan on this one. I read stories about haunted houses, mostly in German. Germany has some pretty scary things.” 

“... Losers. Fine, we’ll start in the art room. I doubt anything would be in there.” I said, pouting through my nose despite not caring about the answer.

Immediately, we moved towards the art room, which was surrounded by this large, super fancy gate that seemed to glow brightly. However, when I touched it, the gate itself disappeared in an instant. 

“The fuck?” I said out loud, without even realizing there were other people around me. 

“Must’ve been some kind of illusion. Is Harold the mastermind?” Lydia thought aloud.

“Nah. Dude didn’t have the skill to pull off something this huge. But like, what if he did that before this shit happened, but no one’s touched it until now?” Jonathon asked while replying to Lydia’s thought.

“Well, regardless, we should look into this room a bit harder. There’s probably something in there pointing to at least our teacher.” I said, taking a few steps forward cautiously.

“You mean, how we can heal whatever’s, like, wrong with her?” Johnathan responded in a confused tone.

“I thought she was just tired…” Lydia replied, also fairly confused.

Ignoring the both of them, I decided to head into the room on my own. The moment I entered, I felt a slight chill go down my spine. I didn’t know what was going on, so I looked around the room. All I saw was photographs and various drawings of everyone, presented as they saw themselves. There wasn’t much else aside from that other than a bunch of stone hammers, probably used for making statues, and some paint brushes. Everything else was photographs and drawings.

“You okay, Luna?” Asked a voice from behind.

As I turned around, it became apparent that Lydia and Johnathan were standing behind me, not knowing that I was off in my own world.

“Huh? Yeah, yeah. I was just… thinking.” I replied, trying to give her some answer to what the hell I was doing.

“Well, regardless, this is like, a pretty weird-ass room,” Johnathan started, acting all curious about everything surrounding them, “For some reason, I feel like all these pictures and photographs… we’ve made them.” 

“Congrats Sherlock, that’s pretty obvious.” I replied, a bit angrily.

“Oh, right. But like, there’s other weird things here. Enoch and Valerie, Harold and Violet, hell, even Maggie, Quinn, and Jasmine are all in these photos. Some of them together.” Johnathan yawned, as if he didn’t care about making such a huge discovery.

“Wait, does that mean we were all… friends, at some point?” Lydia asked, lost in thought.

“Doesn’t that mean we should just find the next two people in a photograph together that are still alive, and find who the next killer or victims are?” I responded, searching frantically.

“I don’t think photographs can be that simple.” Lydia replied. 

“There’s a lot of pictures here… It’d take days to do that, man.” Johnathan agreed.

“I guess you’d have a point…” I said, sighing out loud, as if I had lost trust in myself.

I glanced around the room once more, but didn’t see anything else out of the ordinary.

“I saw a locker room across the hall, I think we should check that out.” Johnathan told us, stretching out his back. 

Lydia and I nodded, and immediately we left for the locker room on the other side of the hall. However, once we got there, we saw a couple of familiar faces already peeking inside of the lockers.

“Avalon, have you metal the requirements for unlocking the silver door?” A voice said from beyond some other Lockers, which clearly sounded like Ben making another one of his stupid puns.

“Your puns are terrible.” Said the other voice, which was dreary and deadly, but totally fit Avalon’s personality of the day.

“Uhh… hey everyone.” I called out, trying to get their attention.

“Ah, Luna, you’ve made it! Morgan was around here somewhere, I don’t exactly know where he went off too.” Ben replied to my greeting, looking around for Morgan.

Avalon’s personality type completely changed right when she saw me, however I still fully believe it’s because her wig fell off as she was running towards me.

“Luna! You’ve made it!” Avalon shrieked. 

"Avalon, when did you get here?" I asked, confused on how she got up to the locker room without Morgan anywhere in sight.

"Oh, Morgan came up because he was a bit bored watching over doom and gloom," Ben spoke, trying to justify Morgan's boredom, "Find anything yet?"

“There wasn’t anything in the Art Room, so that was like, weird.” Johnathan said, trying to get Ben up to date with what was happening.

“It was interesting for sure, but not clue-worthy. You guys found anything in here?” Lydia asked, curious about the findings of the two.

“We totally did! Look, look! In Luna’s Locker!” Avalon shrieked again, this time even more excited.

“My locker?” I asked, before walking over to the locker that was supposed to be mine. 

When I opened the door, all I found was a notebook and a black belt in ninjitsu, for some reason. I opened the notebook, finding a bunch of notes and scribbles about various types of things. Some of them were about how to anticipate your opponents moves in rock-paper-scissors, while others were about how to beat the final boss of Final Fantasy VII in less than 3 minutes. Everything was dense and compact, but it all had my handwriting. Then, finally, the last page was just three words written multiple times.

Don’t Trust Anyone.

I remembered hearing a similar thing in my dream a couple nights ago. It was really, really weird and I was concerned about the entire thing. 

“Don’t… trust… anyone?” I said, confusingly.

“Probably some wise words from the Ultimate Champion, although I wouldn’t know anything about that…” Avalon said, getting lost in thought.

“Hold on, how did you know what my talent was?” I said, putting the notebook in my pocket.

“It was kind of in your notebook, silly.” Avalon said, gesturing towards Ben, who was nodding in confirmation.

“Well… we’ll discuss that more tomorrow, but for now… I don’t remember ever writing this.” I said, concerned for what was written down.

“It makes sense for the notebook to be like that, though, since if you are the Ultimate Champion, then you have the ability to conquer anything competitively with enough hard work.” Lydia replied, patting me on the back.

“So… uhh… anyway, was that all you guys found?” Johnathan asked.

“Sadly, yes. We haven’t had the best of luck getting into anyone else's lockers.” Ben said.

I then motioned them out of the way, analyzing the locker door they were standing in front of, and then kicked the locker door with all of my might, and the door’s nails came out, making the door fall down with them.

“How did you…” Johnathan asked, relatively surprised.

“Absolutely no god damn idea. But hell, if it works, it works.” I replied, when suddenly Morgan came crashing through the doors to the locker room.

“MY DARLINGS, I HEARD A CRASH, AND I NEEDED TO MAKE SURE YOU WERE ALL OKAY!” Morgan yelled, scared to death for some reason.

“Haha! He’s so motherly!” Avalon chimed in, laughing.

“Whose locker was that, anyway?” I asked, trying to get the conversation back on topic.

“Oh… uhh… I don’t know.” Ben replied.

“Beats me!” Avalon laughed a bit more.

“Hey, hold on… is that a psychology book?” Johnathan asked, looking straight ahead.

“Oh my, my, my! It seems our delirious daredevil cracked the case again!” Morgan over-exaggerated.

“Delirious… what?” Johnathan said, confused by Morgans weird speech pattern.

In an instant, I looked inside the psychology book. There was a ton of notes about how the human brain worked, and weird mathematical formulas with notes relating to brain transference.

“So… this was Valentina’s locker…” I said, carefully reading each word of the notes.

“Why does she have so many weird mathematical formulaic do-dads?” Avalon stated, doing weird stuff with her eyes, looking all over the page but not focusing on anything. 

“There’s a german proverb for that. Erst denken, dann handeln. It means think first, then act. I assume that Valentina was going to do something with this knowledge, but never got around to it when the time came around.” Lydia spoke out loud, trying to confirm her way of thinking.

“That must be the wurst, huh?” Ben spoke, laughing at his own pun. 

I placed the textbook back inside Valentina’s locker, which was without a door now, and looked around the room again.

“Anyone else we deem suspicious?” I asked the group.

“Harold was pretty suspicious, but not in that sense.” Johnathan replied, trying to form an idea.

“Cole’s pretty weird about everything, he might know something.” Ben coughed, trying to hold back his laughter. 

“I don’t think Cole is… sane enough, sadly.” I replied, shaking my head.

“Well, darlings, if there’s nothing else here, the only other stop is the haunted house.” Morgan quickly spoke up.

“Eww… Haunted houses are scary…” Avalon spoke in a high-pitched, scared voice.

“What about the main office?” I asked, trying to find a way around not going to the haunted house.

“Door’s locked, Sugar. Ain’t a way anyone’s getting in there.” Morgan spoke courageously, as if he was certain there wasn’t a way.

“Well, I guess that confirms it. Lydia, Morgan, Ben, we’re going to the haunted house.” I said, immediately putting pressure on those three.

“Hold on, darling, why me? I don’t like scary places.” Morgan said, clanging his teeth together to emote fear.

“Jonathan can’t stand haunted houses, and clearly Avalon isn’t going anywhere near the room itself.” I said, defending the two others.

“Yeah, she’s right man. I don’t do haunted houses.” Johnathan replied.

Avalon immediately, without a peep, ran straight out of the room and down the stairs, before anyone got a chance to force her to go. Johnathan soon ran after her, just to make sure she was alright. 

“I guess it’s up to us anyway.” Lydia said, walking towards the door.

I paused, and then started to follow her as Ben and Morgan whispered to each other. Halfway down the hall, they managed to catch up to us, still squirming with fear. Once we got to the Haunted House, we saw a couple of familiar faces, Dakota and Cole.

“You two? What an unlikely couple.” Morgan spoke out without warning.

“I promised to defend Quinn to the end. Now, I must conquer ALL HIS FEARS FOR HIM!” Dakota shouted.

I glanced over at Cole, but he quickly turned his head away and walked into the haunted house ahead of us.

“What’s up with him?” I asked Dakota, hoping he could shed some light on what Cole was going through.

“Dude’s cracked. He’s not himself anymore. He kept going on and on about someone named Junko Enoshima. It was… not really understandable.” Dakota replied, getting a bit quiet about it.

“Junko Enoshima? Oh, yes! The girl who died forced the class before us to kill each other! I heard of her!” Ben shouted, with a dreadful glee that fit the tone of the room in front of us.

“Must be a popular name for those kinds of things…” I said, not really understanding who either of them were talking about.

“Well, if there’s a way out of here, there is no doubt in my mind that it’s in this room!” Dakota said sternly, as if certain what he said was true.

“D-d-do we have too, honey bunches of oats?” Morgan stuttered, shaking with fear again.

“I will pull you into this room whether you like it or not, asswipe.” I angrily stated, startling the girly innocence within Morgan’s personality.

All of us walked into the haunted house, one by one, shaking with fear, before we realized… it wasn’t even half done. Half of the room was a normal college classroom, while everything behind the teacher's desk was totally done in a super ominous atmosphere. There was darkish red light emanating from behind a bunch of black, papier-mâché trees, bending over in such a weird way that it looked like it was blocking the exit. 

“Well that was disappointing.” Lydia spoke up after a few moments of silence.

“Well, at least we tree’d our best!” Ben laughed, trying to lighten the mood with another pun.

Everyone suddenly walked away from Ben and looked closely at the trees.

“I think I’ve seen this in crime dramas, where two cops walk down a narrow path in a forest, only to find a dead body, ravaged by raccoons.” Dakota tried saying, without really understanding what was in front of him.

“Sugar, you watching the wrong crime dramas.” Morgan pointed out, literally pointing a finger at him.

“I don’t think we could actually find any clues here, Ms. Fumiya’s desk is practically inaccessible because of all of these… halloween shenanigans.” I said, trying to get out of the room as quickly as possible. 

“So there’s nothing… hold on, didn’t Cole come in here a few minutes ago?” Ben said, looking around the room. 

He was right, Cole had come in a few minutes ago, but he was nowhere to be seen once we all came in. Nobody was sure what had happened, but it must’ve just been everyone not paying any attention.

“He must’ve walked out the door while we were looking at the trees.” Lydia replied, confirming what I’d been thinking.

“It’s been a rather long day. Maybe we should head back to our dorms and think about this a bit more tomorrow morning, over breakfast.” I said, yawning loudly.

“I think that is a wise idea. Everyone, to your rooms!” Dakota said eagerly, being the first to head out of the room. 

Everyone else looked at Dakota as he exited, and then he was followed by Lydia and Ben. As I was about to leave, I felt a rather warm hand grab me by the wrist. I turned around to see it was none other than Morgan.

“Luna, Might I talk to you as we walk back to the dorms?” Morgan asked, exhausted.

I nodded, and we started heading down to the dorm rooms as he opened up to me.

“I want to apologize for the way I’ve been talking, sugar. It’s not like I’ve been super comfortable exposing my talent around all you folks.” Morgan opened up, sounding slightly resentful.

“Huh? I thought you enjoyed crossdressing.” I replied, trying to get clarification on what he meant.

“Well yeah, I do, but I’ve never been super comfortable doing it in public. It wasn’t always like this, you know…” Morgan continued, still wallowing in some sort of pity.

“I actually… don’t, really.” I replied, a bit confused on the topic of conversation.

“Well, my family always saw me as an androgynous sort rather than a boy. One day, they all decided that it would be interesting for me to try on girls fashion, and immediately they couldn’t tell the difference. They entered me in all sorts of pageants, and although I didn’t really like it at first, I had always won. I grew accustomed to it, y’know? It was fun winning, despite all the other kids mocking me in school and my failing grades…” 

I looked at him, noticing that he had actually started to drop a few tears from his eyes. 

“Are you doing okay, dude?” I asked, looking at him with sympathy.

“These are tears of joy, sugar… If I had never discovered my talent as the Ultimate Drag Queen, I’d never come into this school. I’d never meet all of you. But at the same time, I wouldn’t of been in this situation…” Morgan responded, now starting to cry a bit harder.

“I think out of all the people here… we were all friends… we all respected one another… we learned that with hard work comes success. So for you, and for everyone else… I’ll solve this case, and become the champion of detective solving! … Although, my talent probably doesn’t work like that, but I’ll try, damn it!” I yelled, trying to be as motivational as I could.

“... Thanks, sugar. You mean a lot to me. But, what’s this about being a champion?” Morgan said, blushing a bit, then moving on to a serious question.

“Uhh.. I’ll explain that tomorrow morning… heh.” I said, trying to move that discussion as far away as possible. 

The rest of the walk to the dorms was just us randomly talking about what was going to happen and our lives before this adventure.

As I waved Morgan goodbye, I went into my room, where I found Monokuma lying in wait on my bed.

“Someone’s been a naughty girl!” Monokuma spoke up as soon as he saw me entering the room. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” I yelled, startled by the fact that Monokuma was even in my room.

“You’ve come so close to victory, yet let it fall out of your sight… what a shame, I thought this was going to be challenging…” Monokuma spoke in a sad tone, looking towards the ground.

“Whoever you are, I promise that I’ll discover you, and then murder you like you’ve murdered all our friends.” I said, holding back the impulse to slap him across his mechanical face.

“Well now, it seems like I must go. There’s going to be a murder soon! I can feel it!” Monokuma said excitedly, before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

“Why… you damn stupid bear!!” I screamed, slamming my entire body on the bed and shoving my face into the pillow. 

I couldn’t remember the last time I felt this angry. I knew Monokuma was up to something, but if I succeed within this next case…

It could all be over. 

End of Day 8


	11. Beginning of Day 9

I immediately shot out of bed, into a confusing ray of light that was the light bulb being left on in my room. I was blinded by everything the light bulb stood for, truth, acceptance, anticipation of days to come…

But I had no time for that. I needed to make sure that Monokuma was wrong. I needed to make sure that I was able to prevent anyone from dying today. I had to maintain the idea of victory in my head and pressure through this. Once I got dressed, I slammed the door of my room and made my way to the cafeteria. Everyone there was waiting, except for Avalon, which I found strange since she was usually the first one here.

“Welcome to our table of fun, care to share your newfangled discovery?” Ben said, motioning for me to sit down.

“It seems weird to do it without Avalon here.” I replied, a bit concerned.

“I actually, y’know, kinda agree. Avalon’s never this late, dudes.” Johnathan spoke up, sounding a bit worried.

“A-as if s-she’d w-w-want to be around m-me…” Cole muttered, trying to move the conversation forward.

“Cole, are you okay?” Lydia asked, sensing something weird with Cole’s attitude.

“I-I’m fine… l-let’s just l-l-let Luna t-talk…” Cole stuttered, this time a bit angrily.

“Fair enough, so what’s this about an ultimate champion?” Ben asked, drawing the attention towards me.

“Well… honestly, I’m not too sure. I just suddenly, remembered… that’s all. I remembered what Fumiya told me. Stop winning. I guess I’m just… super competitive. What Lydia said yesterday must also be true, based on that notebook, I must be able to overcome anything competitive with enough hard work. I guess my real talent is being the Ultimate Motivational Competitor.” I said, laughing a bit. 

“So what you’re saying right now, is that you can beat this… killing game, somehow?” Lydia asked, trying to clarify what I was saying.

“I guess you could put it that way.” I replied, still laughing.

“Darling, that just seems a bit overpowering. I’m sure something’s gonna give you a run for your money, sugar.” Morgan replied, listening to every word carefully.

“I see. I guess even I’ll have to follow the rules more carefully from now on!” Dakota said, surprisingly excited.

Everyone then flung their arms in the air, with the exception of Cole, who was still sitting at the opposite end of the table. Afterwards, everyone discussed what they found in their individual searches of the 4th floor yesterday. 30 minutes flew by, then an hour, and then something weird happened.

“Uh… where’s Avalon?” Johnathan spoke up.

He was right, we’d been in the cafeteria for over an hour and Avalon hadn’t even shown up. 

“... I’ll go check on her dorm room.” Lydia spoke up, jolting out of the room with an alarming speed.

“Something isn’t right. It’s not like Avalon to stay in her room, anyway…” I said, trying to figure out what happened.

“Do you think she went up to the 4th floor’s locker room?” Dakota asked, concerned for everyone.

“Do you… think she tried to open her locker, Dakota?” I followed up Dakota’s question with another question.

“I think all of us want to know what’s inside our lockers.” Ben replied, trying to set an example for how to act in this kind of situation.

At that moment, Lydia rushed right into the room. Her face was pale, as if she had just seen a ghost.

“Was she not in her room?” I asked, jumping out of my seat at the table.

“Worse,” Lydia started, “Her door was open. It was just a crack, but enough for me to open the door fully and see that she wasn’t there.”

I paused. I was horrified at the idea that someone had taken Avalon, or that she’d allow herself to be taken. She must’ve gone somewhere herself, somehow. 

“The haunted house. Avalon was wearing a cosplay of the girl from The Ring. If she would go anywhere, it’d have to be there.” I said, starting to run out of the cafeteria. 

“And i-if you’re w-wrong?” Cole asked, still stuttering through his teeth.

“I’m not wrong. Nobody knows Avalon like I do.” I replied, running out of the cafeteria and straight up to the fourth floor.

As I made my way up there, a few others managed to catch up with me. However, the only person who managed to stay next to me was Johnathan, since he’s the Ultimate Quarterback.

“It’s just like, an anime man. We’ll gotta stick together and shit. Power of friendship and all that bullshit, y’know?” Johnathan said between breaths, still running at the same speed as me.

I quickly nodded my head, and ran faster up the stairs, everyone else keeping up. After several minutes, I made it to the Haunted House. In a panic, I shoved the door open. There, I saw Avalon’s dead body hanging from the papier-mâché trees, with her arms open as if she was part of a haunted house exhibit at some sort of museum.

End of Daily Life

Start of Deadly Life

“I...I…” I stuttered, unable to find the words to express my anger and sadness.

“Not… her… anyone but her… HELL, TAKE ME IF YOU HAVE TOO! LET. ME. SEE. QUINN. AGAIN… DAMN IT.” Dakota screamed, slamming his fist into a desk.

“Precious… girl… why…” Morgan started crying out.

“This is… truly heart-wrenching…” Lydia said, keeping a rather calm demeanor, but still crying on the outside.

That was when the intercom came back on, with Monokuma’s voice spreading far across the room.

“Ding ding ding ding!” Monokuma called out, “A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time has passed, we’ll start the class trial!”

I slammed my fist against the desk in front of me, screaming out in anger, when Monokuma suddenly appeared in the room again.

“Geez, I could hear you screaming from half a mile away, Girly.” Monokuma spoke, imitating the motions of a man cleaning out his ear drums.

“What? Are you here to bring us another Monokuma file?” Dakota said sternly, slamming his hand on yet another desk.

“Why, of course! Now that you’ve been through four of these, you should already know what’s in these files!” Monokuma said, throwing the file onto the desk in front of Dakota. 

“What’s the point?” Lydia asked, finally.

“What’s the point of what? Don’t get all smart alecky with me, young lady.” Monokuma said, starting to get a bit pissed off.

“What’s the point of these Monokuma files? Won’t we find everything out if we investigate enough? These last few times, everything’s been fairly clear. The murder weapon, the cause of death, even the time of death… showing us all this is pointless.” Lydia continued, explaining her case.

“Well, games aren’t fun without some tutorials, right? Think of these like the tutorials to solving a murder case!” Monokuma gleefully spoke out.

“Tutorials? This isn’t a game, asshole!” Dakota yelled, right in Monokuma’s face.

“No, no… this IS a game! Just not for you! Upupupupu!” Monokuma laughed, before disappearing within a puff of smoke for the last time, leaving the Monokuma file right on the table.

“I guess we don’t have a choice other than to read it.” I said, sighing.

Dakota then picked up the file, and read what it said out loud.

“This time the victim was Avalon Leroux, the Ultimate LARPer. Time of death is estimated to be around 3:00 am. Cause of death was confirmed to be a blow to her head with a blunt object.” Dakota read, cautiously reading over each word.

“I think we could’ve figure out the cause of death, but not the time, in this case.” Lydia spoke up, going back on her own word.

I nodded, glaring at the file Monokuma had left for us, until finally, I decided that it was now or never, and started to investigate Avalon’s dead body. The Monokuma file appeared to be right, there was a bloody dent on the top of her head, which made it so she would’ve died from blunt force, but that wasn’t the only thing. On her face, there was a lot of wet, white paint, as if it was freshly painted on. Once I wiped it off, I noticed a few bloody scars, with the blood dripping onto the floor below. 

“What the hell?” I yelled, in shock of what I had found. 

“Wet paint? That doesn’t seem right for a person who died at 3 am.” Lydia spoke, confused about the idea.

“Maybe, like, someone came up here before we met in the cafeteria, or whatever?” Johnathan suggested as an idea.

“Well, who was the first person in the cafeteria?” I asked the group, trying to get to the bottom of this.

“That would be myself, darling.” Morgan exclaimed dramatically.

“I can attest to that, guys. I came in second.” Johnathan yawned, stretching his back.

“Alright, can you tell us what order everyone came in, then?” I asked Morgan, suddenly intrigued now that his testimony was solidified.

“Well, first walked in that hunk of-” Morgan said, speaking the first words that came to his mind.

“Can you, like, not do it weirdly, man?” Johnathan clarified, trying to get a straight testimony from Morgan.

“Fine, sugar. But that’ll cost extra,” Morgan started, before coughing as if to clear his throat, “first one in was Johnathan. Ben came in a few minutes later, then Cole managed to find his way to the Cafeteria, Lydia came in next, Dakota took a while after that, and the last one in was you, Luna.” 

“So what do we think the time frame between when you entered, and I entered was?” I replied, trying to figure something out.

“It should’ve been about 30 minutes, honey.” Morgan said after thinking about it for a few extra seconds.

“So if Ben came in a few minutes after Johnathan, it was either him, Cole, or Lydia who painted Avalon’s face before we all met up.” 

“B-b-b-but I h-have an alibi!” Cole shouted immediately, trying to defend himself.

“Save it for now. We’ll think about that more when the time comes around.” I replied, a bit angry with Cole’s sudden interjection.

After that weird discussion, I looked around the area some more. I found some pieces of stone rubble on the ground, blood markings that looked like Avalon was being dragged to the trees, and a tiny bit of scrap metal.

“These don’t look like the ordinary things you’d find in a classroom.” Dakota pointed out, stating the obvious.

“This stone rubble looks like it came from the Art Room. However, I’m not exactly sure where the scrap metal came from, it might not be important.” I said, carefully examining the items from the floor.

“Well, that’s nice and all, but I have to… pitch… something to you, and it’s pretty… dark…” Ben spoke up, laughing at his own puns.

“Huh? What in gods name are you talking about, you idiot?” I said, still a bit pissed off.

“You remember how yesterday, the background to this was blood red? Well, it looks like the winding road took a sharp turn at the corner of super dark and pitch black…” Ben said, still laughing at his own mediocrity. 

“Hey, he’s right, darlings…” Morgan concurred, also looking at the backdrop.

“What would even be the point of doing something like that? Wouldn’t Red fit better anyway?” Lydia questioned the decision, before staring at it for awhile.

“I think our answers rely in other rooms for now. I’m going to go check out the art room, someone else should try and open Avalon’s locker.” I said, before walking out of the room, making my way towards the Art Room.

Suddenly, Lydia joined up with me on my way to the art room.

“Huh? What’s up, Lydia?” I asked, as she had startled me.

“Too many guys left… I feel more comfortable investigating with girls.” Lydia replied, talking a bit nervously.

“This a new thing, or…?” I asked, forgetting if she’s ever really investigated with solely guys.

“Well, there’s always been at least one other girl up until now, but since Avalon’s dead, there’s not really anyone else other than you…” Lydia said shyly, as I opened the door to the art room.

“That’s a fair enough point, I guess. At least help me look around here for now.” I said, immediately eyeballing the room.

I paused at that moment, immediately feeling like something was off. I checked around the room once more when I noticed that there were a few pictures missing from one side of the room that was covered with photographs.

“That’s weird. Who’d want to take all these photographs off the wall?” I said, walking towards the area.

As I looked a bit closer, I noticed that something was really, really off about all of them. As I carefully, but confidently, stared at each picture, I realized that all the pictures that had Avalon on them were gone. 

“... That’s not good. All of Avalon’s pictures are gone…” I said, standing in shock at the missing photographs.

“That’s not all, either. Whoever took those pictures, also must’ve painted Avalon’s face black so they couldn’t see her, and with this exact paint brush.” Lydia pointed out, holding up a paintbrush that was dried in black paint.

“Hold on a minute… black paint? The black backdrop? Whoever killed Avalon must have a weird connection with the color of black…” I pondered, wondering how all these things fit together.

When I turned around to take a closer look at the drawings, I tripped over something hard, and I was fell immediately on the ground.

“Ugh… damn it…” I said, slowly getting up and brushing myself off.

When I turned around to look at what I had tripped on, I noticed the hammerstone I saw yesterday, but with red markings at one end of it.

“I think you found the murder weapon.” Lydia said jokingly.

“But what is it doing here, of all places?” I asked, confused.

“I don’t know that myself. I think whoever dropped it might’ve been trying to clean it off.” Lydia said, trying to figure out a possible solution.

“But there’s no sink in here… which is honestly weird for an art room…” I pointed out, looking even more confused. 

“I guess we’ll have to figure that part out later. In any case, let’s go meet up with Ben and Dakota in the Locker Room. They might’ve found something by now.

Without as much as a simple head nod, I jolted straight to the locker room, where Ben and Dakota were trying to unlock Avalon’s locker door.

“Damn it, I thought this would be easier!” Ben yelled as I walked in, without either of them noticing myself or Lydia.

“How did you even do this the first time?” Dakota said, getting angrier and angrier as the locker door wouldn’t budge.

“He did it because I kicked it open. Now, stand back, asshats.” I said, motioning both of them out of the way.

Once they moved, I did the same thing I did with Valentina’s locker, and kicked it in the exact spot so that all the nails fell out, and the door fell onto the floor.

“Next time you insult me, it’ll be jail for you…” Dakota said, pouting as if he could’ve done it himself.

“Shut up. How did you even realize this locker was Avalon’s?” I asked, confused once again.

“Unlike Ben, I actually looked at each individual locker and found… the names on the locker doors.” Dakota spoke up, still a bit pouty.

“Yeah, that was my bad.” Ben laughed.

“Then how the hell did you manage to find my locker?” I asked, even more confused.

“Pure luck, I guess…” Ben said, his laughter slowly dying out. 

I pushed him off to the side as I looked in Avalon’s locker. The only thing in there was a ‘cosplay for noobs’ book. Once I opened it, I noticed that it was filled with notes on personality imitation and acting. 

“... This is what Avalon was doing during school?” I asked, extremely confused.

“I don’t think this is relevant. How would the killer even know about something like this?” Dakota pointed out.

“You have a point. The killer wouldn’t be able to get into her locker, even if they tried.” Lydia concurred.

“I guess there really isn’t much else to see here. Where’d Morgan, John, and Cole go?” I asked, trying to think of where else to head off too.

“I think they mentioned something about going to Avalon’s room.” Ben spoke up, trying to remember.

“Then that’s where I’m going next. You two figure out if there’s anything else here, Lydia and I will go join the others.” I said, immediately turning to run out of the room and directly approach Avalon’s dorm. 

After a few minutes, Lydia and I finally made it to her dorm room, where Morgan, John, and Cole were all investigating, just like the others said. Once Lydia and I entered, everyone turned to look at us.

“You’ve finally made it, sugar.” Morgan started, looking at us.

“Yes, we have. Now explain what you’ve found so far.” I asked, not wasting any time. 

“Well, we like, found a bunch of clothes sitting in the corner over there. Probably a bunch of scrapped LARPing shit.” Johnathan started off.

“T-there’s s-s-some blood on the f-floor as well…” Cole stuttered, motioning his shaking hand to a small speck of a blood stain on Avalon’s carpet.

“I also found her diary! It’s so juicy! Listen to this one, darlings… Day 1, whatever year it is because I don’t know… I met a bunch of wonderful people today, they’re all vibrant in personalities and I’m stuck with this knight-in-shining armor outfit. But it seems were in a pickle. All of us are going to be forced to kill each other, I hope I don’t die here…” Morgan read, slowly getting more sad as he read from the diary.

“Why did you unlock her diary?” I asked, immediately.

“W-what? Why is that important? It was open when I found it!” Morgan shot out of his mouth, defending himself.

“Dude, don’t lie. The key was right next to the diary.” Johnathan said as calmly as possible.

“I’m going to punch you in the face later…” I said, with a menacing tone in my voice.

Lydia then walked over and snatched the diary out of Morgan's hand, and walked back to me. Once there, she started flipping through the pages.

“This is interesting. It details all of her 4 cosplays that she’s worn. The Knight, Naoto Shirogane, Mirei, and the spirit from the ring…” Lydia started off, detailing her findings from the diary, “and then.. Oh… I wonder if this was her first cases motive…” 

“Huh? W-what is it?” Cole said, stuttering, but somewhat intrigued.

“It seems that she let her best friend drown by accident… She was so scared and caught up in calling the police, that she didn’t realize that it would take too long for the police to get there… and Avalon can’t swim…” Lydia continued, pausing every few seconds.

“Damn, that must’ve been terrible to have on her conscious.” I spoke, right as the intercom in Avalon’s room blasted Monokuma’s voice right in my ear.

“Time’s up, everyone! You know where the class trial room is, so I’m not going to say anything! But it’s time for everyone to join us in the case of Avalon Leroux!” Monokuma shouted ecstatically.

Everyone took a few moments to catch their breath, and then all of us made our way to the elevator to the class trial room. Once everyone had made it, the doors open, and we walked inside. The elevator was fairly quiet, as nobody wanted to speak. After a few minutes, the doors finally opened up and we all took our places at the trial.

“I’ll avenge you… Avalon…” I said, without any hint of sadness.

“Well now, it’s time to solve the case of who killed Avalon Leroux, the Ultimate LARPer!” Monokuma called out.

“We have all the information we need, but something new might come up in the trial…” Lydia spoke up, talking about the possibility of figuring out something new during the trial.

“We’ll prove, once and for all, that… something… I lost my train of thought, pretend I said something inspirational!” Dakota yelled triumphantly. 

Everyone else took a moment to catch their breath, then we put all our attention towards one thing: figuring out who killed Avalon Leroux.

Class Trial Starts Here

Luna: Alright, so where exactly do we start here?

Lydia: Huh? Didn’t you have an idea?

Morgan: Sugar, you don’t have to be so confused. I got you covered. First of all, my fantastic darlings, we should decide what the murder weapon is!

Dakota: Given the size of the blow to the head and the stone rubble… I’d say that the weapon of massive blows to the head was none other than a Baton!

Morgan: Uh-huh. And where would you find a baton in a place like this, honey?

Cole: O-or… s-s-stone r-rubble on a b-baton…

Dakota: I… huh. I guess you have a point there.

Luna: Great, I guess we’re back to the start.

Ben: I would like to roll this out there, but maybe the hammerstone from the art room is the culprit!

Johnathan: Makes sense, man. There’s like, nowhere else on the fourth floor with stone.

Lydia: Wait, Luna, what about the bloody hammerstone?

Luna: Oh yeah… I kind of tripped on it. But it was super bloody on one end.

Dakota: It definitely fits the blow to the head, but there’s other stuff that bothers me.

Johnathan: Are you talking about the time of death, bro?

Dakota: Absolutely. Someone would have to not be able to sleep at around that time. 

Lydia: And none of us would have an alibi. 

Ben: I guess that settles it, since no one has an alibi, we can’t figure out the killer…

Luna: SHUT THE FUCK UP! There’s more to this case than just an alibi, Ben. There’s two other things that bother me as well. Everything alluding to the color black, and the missing photographs in the art room.

Dakota: I’LL ARREST YOU FOR THAT! How exactly do you know there’s any correlation towards the killer and the color black, huh? Are you a racist? HAVE WE BEEN FOLLOWING A RACIST?

Luna: That’s not it at all. This isn’t about race. It’s about a god damn color.

Dakota: Well these colors are a symbol of race, and I will not stand for any sort of racist remarks!

Luna: I’M GOING TO PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE! Dakota, listen to me for a minute. Take the time of death, 3 AM. If the clocks are right, this would’ve been night time, so it would’ve been dark. Place of death, the Haunted House. Had it been an actual haunted house, the entire room would’ve been extremely dark. The background behind the trees were changed from red to black, and all the drawings of Avalon had her face painted black! The paintbrush in the art room was dipped in black paint. However, Avalon’s face was painted bright white. This is to throw us off based on everything else.

Dakota: I… that’s a fair point. 

Lydia: Hold on a minute Luna, how exactly can we say that all of that wasn’t solely a coincidence?

Luna: Most of them were, but changing the backdrop from Red to Black would take a bit more effort to do, because there was no reason to do it. Then, dipping the paintbrush in black and not any other color? There was some reason to do that. I think that it’s possible that the killer… may have black as a calming color.

Ben: That’s one of the most bizarre ideas I’ve heard yet! But I don’t see any way to disprove it. 

Cole: H-h-hold on! Even if the k-k-killer was using b-b-black as some s-s-sort of s-soothing m-mechan-nism… how d-does t-that explain t-the b-b-blood in her r-r-room and the h-h-h-haunted h-house…?

Luna: Clearly the paint was applied far after the fact, which means someone would’ve had to go upstairs before we met in the cafeteria to apply the paint so it would still be wet.

Morgan: Egads! But why would anyone go through all that trouble?

Lydia: I think I can answer that. To throw us off and make us think that the paint was applied after the killing happened so we’d think the black color was just a coincidence.

Cole: A-are you s-s-saying it wasn’t?

Ben: Well, to narrow down the killer, we should go over who arrived in the cafeteria at what point.

Morgan: That’s my cue, darlings. So the order I remember was Myself, then Johnathan, Then Ben a few minutes later, then Cole, then Lydia, then Dakota after awhile, and then Luna. Does that sound right?

Lydia: If that took roughly 30 minutes from start to finish, then we should be able to place the killer as either Ben, Cole, or Myself.

Cole: I-I-I h-have an alibi!

Ben: Well, I also have an alibi.

Lydia: Shame. It seems I’m the only one who doesn’t. But I am not the killer.

Cole: H-h-how do w-we know, b-b-bookworm? You p-p-probably enjoy d-d-dark places, with all t-those books you t-t-translate…

Lydia: That comparison would make sense… if I could read in the dark.

Cole: W-w-well, m-maybe you just h-have better e-eyesight…

Luna: There should be something to prove it isn’t Lydia…

Dakota: Hold on a minute cole, don’t you think you’re rushing ahead of yourself with this?

Cole: O-of course n-not! S-s-she’s the killer! It w-was all her! She dipped t-the paint b-brush in black and c-c-changed the backdrop!

Luna: SHUT THE FUCK UP! There’s a contradiction that you’ve put in place Cole.

Cole: W-w-what of it?

Luna: You specifically said Lydia changed the backdrop, right? Well, the problem is that she specifically found that it was pointless to do so. Why would she change the backdrop if she figured it would be pointless?

Morgan: SORRY TO DRAG YOU INTO THIS, DARLING!

Luna: Morgan, why are you defending him?

Morgan: I’m sorry sugar, but don’t you think that it would be perfect if she did change the backdrop and say that?

Luna: Absolutely not, why the hell would she do that?

Morgan: You see, it’s pretty clear… She said it only to remove suspicion of herself as the killer… so she changed the backdrop… after hitting Avalon in the head… using her own two hands!

Luna: I’M GOING TO PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE!

Morgan: Something wrong, Gorgeous?

Luna: Stop talking like that, and yes, there is. The backdrop is inaccessible without some tool to get back there. There wasn’t any form of tool that was in the haunted house to be used.

Ben: Hold on a minute… but what about the scrap metal?

Lydia: Oh yes, the scrap metal, it looked like it belonged to some kind of tool…

Dakota: Unless that was only there to throw us off. Listen, what if the killer used the murder weapon to get behind the trees?

Johnathan: Hold up, are you saying the killer pounded an opening in the back on the trees to remove the backdrop?

Lydia: So then the killer would have to be skinny enough to do that… Sorry to say, I’m a bit pudgy.

Johnathan: Alright, jerks. Good ol’ Johnathan’s going to pinpoint the killer right now, and I say that it’s absolutely Ben. 

Ben: Huh? Why me? Suspicion hasn’t ben thrown off Lydia yet!

Johnathan: It’s your god damn talent. It’s been bothering me since day one. Archaeology is the study of dead people, so you’d know exactly where to kill people, because you’ve found dead bodies of the past!

Ben: I think you have a misconception of what archaeology is, my fine sir. What you’re thinking of is a coroner. 

Johnathan: HELL NO! I may have failed science, but I know damn well an archaeologist when I see one!

Dakota: I work closely with coroners, and I’m sure an archaeologist is one.

Lydia: Uhh… As a person who reads a lot of words, I can directly tell you that a coroner and an archaeologist are two different professions. 

Cole: S-shut up! Who w-would believe a t-t-trashy b-b-bookworm?

Morgan: Oh hell naw, sugar. You did not just insult my baby girl like that.

Johnathan: YOU KILLED AVALON! Face the fucking facts, you traitorous asshat!

Ben: I swear, I’ve never killed anyone! I only enjoy researching the cultures of the dead, not the people themselves.

Dakota: So you’re going to lie to us again?

Cole: I-I-I G-G-GOT IT! THEY B-B-BOTH KILLED A-A-AVALON!

Luna: EVERYONE SHUT THE FLYING FUCK UP!

Morgan: Oh good lord…

Luna: We’re not getting anywhere with all this constant fucking arguing. It seems clear that there’s only one way to figure out this case… whoever painted Avalon’s face black in the drawings, also stole all her photographs from the art room. And whoever did that, is likely the murderer.

Johnathan: Alright, Ben, when did you go into the art room?

Ben: Why the sudden accusation of me for? I would never take down another student's picture! Check my room if you have too!

Lydia: Monokuma…

Monokuma: Do I finally get to take part in this incredibly despairful debate?

Lydia: Did you see who took the photographs?

Monokuma: Of course I did! I installed every camera with night-vision sensors!

Lydia: Interesting. Would you tell us who took the pictures?

Monokuma: But that would be cheating, you have to figure that out for yourself…

Luna: Hold on a sec. We’ve interrogated both Lydia and Ben… but there was another person within our time frame.

Morgan: Cole, right?

Luna: Cole, you’ve been acting weird since this trial began. You immediately accused Lydia after the connection with blackness, and then suddenly hopped on the Johnathan-and-Dakota-Being-Dickheads train, heading directly towards blaming-Lydia-And-Ben town. But you were right in the middle of them. Everyone should’ve woken up at the same time, so what took you so long?

Cole: M-m-me? W-well… I was i-in the b-b-bathroom…

Ben: Wait, haven’t you said you had an alibi? Who’s your alibi, Cole?

Lydia: Yeah, if you went to the bathroom, did anyone see you there?

Cole: O-o-of c-c-course! The p-person who s-s-saw me… w-w-was…

Morgan: Yes, sugar, go on…

Cole: THE M-MONSTER!

Johnathan: The what?

Cole: I was c-c-chased by the m-monster… yes… into t-t-the bathroom…

Lydia: That… isn’t an alibi…

Luna: Yeah, there is no monster… other than the one you… wait…

Ben: Something wrong?

Dakota: I smell something fishy too…

Luna: Cole, how often have you been avoiding Avalon?

Cole: W-what are you t-t-talking about?

Luna: Before the first case, you said you saw a monster, but it was really just Avalon in the student store. During the second case, you saw the suit of armor, and immediately assumed it was a monster… Now you’re saying a monster chased you into the bathroom? That sounds a bit suspicious. 

Ben: I don’t mean to jump to conclusions, but wasn’t this after Monokuma’s alarm? Avalon was long dead by that point. 

Luna: Unless… It’s a post-traumatic stress hallucination.

Lydia: Hold on, what does that have… oh, I think I got it now. You’re saying that if Cole killed Avalon, thinking she was a monster, he’d start going insane from it and hallucinating Avalon still being around?

Luna: Yeah, that’s what I think.

Cole: Heh… heh heh heh…

Morgan: Uhh… something’s still off about Cole, darlings.

Cole: As if I’d kill someone as lowly and ignorant as Avalon… where’s the fun in that? I was running away from the monster… that’s all…

Lydia: Did his stutter get removed already? This is weird…

Cole: There’s no proof I killed avalon. No proof, no proof, no proof, no proof…

Luna: There’s something… I’m sure of it…

Cole: OH YEAH? THEN SHOW ME! What did I do? I didn’t do anything. I ran away from a monster. Slowly going insane? HA! I’ve been insane! I’ve been insane for years! But I wouldn’t hurt that monster… I couldn’t…

Luna: The stone rubble… wait… stone rubble… Ultimate Miner, hatred for the monster, which was actually Avalon… there’s only one thing left…

Cole: HEY! Listen to me when I’m talking to you!

Luna: No.

Morgan: No?

Johnathan: Good, I thought he was going to be insane forever.

Cole: Why not? What proof do you have that I killed Avalon?

Luna: It all makes sense. The stone, the missing photographs, the black symbolism… It’s all representative of a cave, isn’t it, Cole?

Morgan: Oh Snap, sugar!

Dakota: But… what does missing photographs have to do with caves?

Luna: To map them. So that when they get out of the cave, they can find places they haven’t searched and make a map of them. If Cole did kill Avalon, then he would’ve mapped all the weak spots on her body based on those pictures!

Cole: Are you insane? Why would I even bother doing that?

Dakota: The irony is really thick right now.

Luna: If you didn’t… where are the pictures, Cole?

Cole: I don’t think you know what you’re talking about…

Luna: Then don’t dodge the question.

Cole: I didn’t take any pictures. I’d say Ben or Lydia did.

Luna: Then how about… we have Monokuma look in your room?

Cole: NO. My room is messy, it’d be impossible to find anything!

Lydia: Seems like a logical excuse for dodging the question.

Cole: YOU CAN’T LOOK THERE, YOU WON’T FIND ANYTHING!

Monokuma: Too late!

Cole: W-what?!?

Monokuma: Oh boy, Cole, where did you get all these weird pictures of Avalon? Are you some kind of pervert?

Cole: I DIDN’T TAKE THOSE PICTURES, THE MONSTER PLANTED THEM IN MY ROOM!

Johnathan: I guess that settles it. Let’s go ahead and vote.

Class Trial Ends Here

As well all voted for Cole, we pulled down the lever to spin the wheel. As we suspected, the wheel landed on three coles and the word ‘guilty’ appeared at the bottom.

“So it was Cole after all…” Lydia said, not very surprised.

“Okay, I guess now is that time for... why did you do it?” I asked Cole, angrily.

“She… was torture… but that’s okay… she told me you’d find a way to kill me…” Cole muttered to himself.

“She? She who?” Dakota asked, rubbing his head.

“The one who started this entire thing, of course… to get smarter… all the talents, and she needed mine… while you were all yelling, my insanity kept slip… slip… slipping away… that’s why… I’m the devil on her shoulder…” Cole muttered still, slowly getting silenter and silenter.

“Devil on the shoulder? Wait, are you talking about Valentina?” Ben shot out, recognizing the phrase.

“Even if I knew who she was, I wouldn’t tell any of you… she could turn you all into her slaves at any moment…” Cole continued muttering.

“God, this chick sounds like a gigantic bitch…” Johnathan grunted.

“Have fun solving the next case… I hope it’ll be worth it…” Cole muttered, then finally shut his mouth.

“Next case? There won’t be a next case! I won’t let that happen!” I shouted, running towards Cole with a fist in the air.

“Whoops, we are out of time, so I guess the only time we have left is… PUNISHMENT TIME!” Monokuma shouted, disappearing with Cole as I fell flat on my face punching nothing. 

I turned around and noticed that the large screen in the back was finally showing something. That something was a large map of a cave. As I looked closer at it, Monokuma was at the bottom of the cave, with some dynamite. Then, a title appeared on screen. 

Cole Laver: Ultimate Miner Execution: Map to the Dead Site

As the cave came back on the screen, Monokuma slammed the dynamite stick, allowing it to blow up. Cole was stuck at the very end of the cave, being chased by a giant monster. As he ran, the cave itself crumbled everywhere around him, with rocks and stuff falling all around the area itself. The monster also caused the rubble, but crashing into walls and swinging its arms at Cole as he tried to dodge. Near the end, he saw a light shine at the end of the cave, but both him and the monster picked up the pace. Finally, Cole made it out, and the monster's arm flung out, trying to grab him. Cole then walked over and sat on a rather pointy rock, relieved, but then that rock turned into a drill, and drilled directly into his butt, spinning him around violently, scattering his body parts and blood all over the cave entrance and the driller itself. It then zoomed in on Monokuma, driving the drill, and put his thumbs up.

The screen faded to black, and every single person in the room was absolutely horrified at what just happened. His parts were all over some cave somewhere, and he would never live again.

“Holy fucking shit…” Johnathan said, with the most shocked voice he’s ever spoken in.

“That wasn’t just a death… that was overkill…” Ben said, in the most sad tone he’d ever used.

“Hopefully that’s the last one…” I said, starting to cry a bit, “I mean, he was a prick, but no one should ever die like that on purpose…” 

No one else spoke. Everything else was too disgusting to put into words, and we all saw it. Every one of us. We all headed out of the room and ignored everything Monokuma say. Well, everyone else ignored it, I was too shocked and angry to hear anything else. For the rest of the night, all I could hear was the sound of the background noise, and the vision of Cole dying over and over and over…

It was enough to drive anyone insane…

And I don’t know how long we’re going to last anymore.

End of Day 9

Survivors Remaining: 6


	12. Beginning of Day 10

So… this might come as a shock to you, but it’s something I think you need to hear. Well, aside from the fact that somehow, I managed to be put in charge of this story. Anyway, you know who I am. Dakota Stantz, officer of Hope’s Peak America, yada, yada. Well, let me tell you something, sirs and madams.

This story is going to have a ton of issues. You may not notice them right away, and I don’t blame you for not understanding the circumstances, but the words I am about to speak will be fairly important. I trust you’ll pay attention.

Now then, allow me to begin the story from where we left off. I had surprisingly woken from my slumber due to Monokuma’s announcement. It was loud and boisterous, so I was immediately put at a disadvantage. As an officer's work is never done, and not even I know when the next tragic event is going to happen, I slept in my work clothing. 

However, as I emerged from my bed, the first thing I did was grab a gun that had shockingly gotten past whoever put us in here. This gun was very special to me, as it was given to me by my grandfather. It was a specially designed Smith and Wesson Model 29, with a .44 magnum caliber. The 6 bullets I had thought I put in there originally were taken out and placed somewhere, but I hadn’t the foggiest idea where they’d be.

No matter, I decided to make my way to the cafeteria, as I would any other day. It was empty. Avalon wasn’t anywhere to be seen, and neither was Cole. They both died just the day before, which saddened us all. She was the brightest of the bunch, cheering us all on, and I’m sure she’s doing that from beyond the walls of what we call life. 

I waited, alone, in the cafeteria for the next people to arrive. There were six of us left. Myself, Luna, Ben, Lydia, Morgan, and Johnathan. I don’t really need to tell you that, but it’s good to remind yourself each day of those who aren’t dead. It’s refreshing. 

After a while of thinking to myself, Johnathan entered the room, yawning incredibly loudly.

“Oh, Dakota, I didn’t even see you in here, man.” Johnathan said, a bit too relaxed. 

“I see you aren’t worried for the well-being of everyone else in accordance to yesterday's trial.” I bluntly threw out, a bit tense from the situation.

“We all experience sadness in our own way, man. I was raised to be the bigger man if stuff like this ever happened.” He replied back, relaxing even more as he sat down in his predetermined chair.

“I suppose I would expect you to be raised in such a manner.” I muttered, trying to understand the situation.

Soon after that, Ben and Morgan finally came into the cafeteria. 

“Luna and Lydia said they were going to go take a bath, so they’ll be a bit late.” Ben said, a bit less relaxed about the entire thing.

“Darling, if you’re feeling upset, you can just ask grandma Morgan to take care of you.” Morgan replied, as if trying to cheer up Ben.

“Morgan, lay off, bro. It’s a hard day for all of us. Avalon’s, like, dead and shit.” Johnathan spoke so abruptly that memories of my time with Quinn came flooding back. 

I could remember his voice, his cussing, everything. I could hear him screaming. I could hear him say shit like “Damn it, Dakota! Man the fuck up, you gotta grab the bull by the fucking horns and shit. But like, don’t actually grab the bull by the fucking horns, unless you want that bull’s head stuck in your god damn abdomen for the rest of your fucking life. It’s some crazy shit, I know a guy who did that, walked around for 3 days straight with a bull in his ass. This world is fucked up, bro.”

Okay, maybe I slightly exaggerated on that, but I do remember Quinn telling me once that some guy walked around with a bull’s head in his butt and I remember laughing about it. But now, nobody has time to laugh.

I heard a sneeze and came back to reality.

“Dakota, are you feeling okay? You, like, kinda zoned out man.” Johnathan asked, making sure that I was fine. 

“I am 100% okay. You can trust me if any unnecessary problems arise!” I yelled, losing control of my own projection.

“...Something’s been bothering me.” Ben spoke up, presumably from what seemed to be a long while. 

The three of us turned our heads in the direction of Ben, curious as to what was plaguing him.

“Something up, man?” Johnathan asked rather calmly.

“Where’s Monokuma? He’s supposed to be here soon to tell us a new floor has opened up.” Ben replied in a very serious manner, which was unlike him.

We all turned our heads to look back at one another. Ben was right. Monokuma hasn’t even appeared. There should be a fifth floor in this building, which is weird. What was going on? I felt as if I knew something strange was going to happen, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Then, it finally happened. I zoned out again, except this time it was a bit too real.

I felt out of touch from reality, woozy from something. I saw only darkness, but that was because my eyes felt closed. When I tried to open them, I was startled. I noticed a nurse standing over me, with a crazy look in her eyes. She was telling me something, but I was unable to hear her. Her voice was jumbled, and her lips didn’t match up to the voices she made. After that, I passed out again. Startled by the vision, I went back to reality. Luna and Lydia had joined us at the table, and everyone was looking at me weird.

“Are… you okay, Dakota?” Luna asked, worried about my condition.

“I… I’m fine…” I said, thumping my head with my fist to make sure any loose brain cells would shuffle back into place.

“Wait… are you slowly regaining your missing memories?” Lydia asked, trying to understand the situation, “If you are, then you should tell us what you saw.”

I sighed immediately, but proceeded to talk about what happened. I described the nurse in fairly decent details from what I could make out, as well as her voice and what she was doing, however I wasn’t able to decipher anymore of that. 

“Well, you gave it your best shot.” Ben said, laughing at his own pun. 

I think I saw Luna crack a smile as well, but it immediately went away.

“Well now, It sucks that everyone has to be down in the dumps about this, but come on! The killing game is still going on!” A voice shot out, only revealing itself to be Monokuma.

“Not you… not now…” Luna angrily grunted, slamming her fist on the table as if to signify her anger.

“You aren’t happy to see me? That makes me a sad bear. I doubt you’d even want to know what I have to say, even if it concerns your missing memories.” Monokuma said as if to pass off information in an unconventional way.

“Missing Memories? What would you even know about that?” Johnathan yelled, as if he had never experience such intense anger in his entire life.

“Upupu! Now I got your attention! In fact, the new motive concerns these missing memories!” Monokuma laughed, tricking us into thinking he’d bother helping us out.

“You son of a bitch!” Luna screamed.

“Guys, please calm down…” Lydia tried to say, taking deep breaths beforehand.

“I believe we should listen to what Monokuma has to say. If the motive concerns our missing memories, then we should get some sort of clues about it.” I stated, attempting to get everyone else to calm down.

As if on cue, Monokuma threw out several pictures along the table, all of which pertained to our class. Everyone was in these pictures, including all the people who died. I frantically pulled out one of Quinn and suddenly, as if I had never forgotten it, the memory of what happened in that picture came back immediately.

“This was the day Quinn and I decided to start handing out fliers to animal shelters around the school…” I said, remembering that Quinn will never see this again.

“Hey, here’s one of myself and Avalon! She had asked me to stop by the Moonsoul kingdom after class that day, which was her LARPing group…” Luna cried, letting the tears roll down her face.

“Is this… myself and Enoch?” Ben spoke up, shocked to find the picture.

“Look… here’s one of all of us. Everyone’s here, even the Venzor twins.” Lydia said as she put a picture in the middle of the table of all of us at the school's gym. 

“Alright, Sugar, I know you got some weird motive behind this, so spill.” Morgan firmly stated, speaking directly to Monokuma.

“This is where it gets exciting! I wonder how everyone will react? I get the shivers just thinking about it… But no getting lewd when I tell you, I’m still your headmaster!” Monokuma laughed in a lovingly evil way.

“Who the fuck would get lewd about a motive for a killing game? Just tell us if you’re going to tell us!” Luna angrily shouted, curling her hands into fists.

“Upupupu, what despair! Especially since you all remember these pictures vividly because we didn’t erase all your memories!” Monokuma stated with a straight face, as if to confuse us all even more.

For a moment, there was only silence. Then, Monokuma spoke up again.

“Geez, I’d expect some kind of reaction from a reveal like that! Usually those only happen in the late game! I said… not all your memories were erased!” 

“Explain further.” Lydia stated, trying to hold back anger.

I noticed that Lydia had her hands curled into fists as well, which was odd as she was the most level headed of all of us. It had to have taken a lot to get her to such a point.

“If I tell you that, I’d spoil the ending! But I can tell you that the only two days we took from you were your first day of school and the day before you all thought you lost your memories! It was alllllll a placebo!” Monokuma laughed menacingly.

“A… placebo…?” Morgan shuttered, on the brink of spouting tears.

“You mean all this time… we already knew everything you told us?” Luna spoke in shock, uncertain of any answer that came her way.

“Of course, we may have pushed back those memories a tiny bit… but they were never erased, you could’ve called them back at any time!” Monokuma said in an obnoxious way.

“... So… what about the 5th floor?” Ben spoke up, trying to immediately change the subject.

“Wha? Idiot, there is no 5th floor! Hope’s Peak College only has 4 floors!” Monokuma shouted angrily at Ben, “Gah! I tried to take the time to give you something to work with, but nooooooooo. That’s it, I’m done with you cretins. Monokuma out!” 

Monokuma then slammed his fist on the floor, making a large crack with smoke coming out, and disappearing into the smoke. When the smoke itself had cleared, the crack was gone, as if it was only an illusion.

Suddenly, everything came flooding back to me. The nurse’s name was Mikan Tsumiki. She was our senior at Hope’s Peak Academy. The picture in the middle of the table was the official picture day for us. Each and every photograph’s moment came back visually, even the ones with Ms. Fumiya.

“So the reason we didn’t know anyone when we arrived here was because we simply… forgot?” Luna spoke, still shocked about the entire thing.

“Her name… was Mikan Tsumiki…” I said, stuck between reality and my own memories. 

“Damn it… Enoch was my best friend and I just let him get killed…” Ben cried softly, putting his head into his arms on the table.

Slowly, each piece of the puzzle was starting to come together. Everything was starting to form, and it finally happened. I figured everything out. What was going on, who the mastermind was, what their goal is, and why they chose us.

“I… know… everything now…” I said slowly. 

Everyone else turned to look at me, as if I went out of my mind.

“She… wants… our talents…” I started, before beginning to repeat those words like a tribal chant.

“She wants… our talents… She wants our talents… she wants our talents she WANTS OUR TALENTS SHE WANTS OUR TALENTS SHEWANTSOURTALENTS SHE-”

At that moment, I was hit in the head with a very strong object, and immediately passed out.

(From this moment forward, Narration will be from Luna once again.)

I looked over and saw Lydia holding her fist over Dakota as he lay cold on the ground.

“Is he dead?” Morgan asked immediately.

“If he was dead, we would’ve already heard the body discovery announcement. He’s just knocked out.” Lydia replied, breathing heavily.

“Damn, that took some balls. But what was he saying? Something about someone wanting our talents. I dunno about you, but like, my talent is pretty useless in this scenario.” Johnathan exclaimed. 

I felt the pulse on Dakota as he lay on the ground. It was fairly faint, but I could feel his pulse.

“He’s fine. I think he just needs some rest. Morgan, can you take him to the nurse's office? Oh, and make sure he doesn’t, like, say anything confusing while he’s in there.” I asked Morgan, who immediately nodded his head and took him to the nurse's office.

“So, what now? There’s nowhere left to explore.” Ben said, sighing.

“There is, actually. We need to take a look at all the locations in the photos once again. Something new is sure to come to light.” I said, trying to promote a happier aura.

“I agree, but I think we should start it up tomorrow. We’ve been in here for awhile, and I need to study something a bit more…” Lydia replied immediately.

“Just one more question…” Ben said, right as Lydia was starting to get up, “Where’d you get that inhuman strength, Lydia?”

“I… don’t talk about that… I’m sorry, I really have to go.”

After replying, Lydia ran out of the room as fast as she could and made it back to her dorm.

“Touchy subject?” Ben turned to me and asked.

“The more we think we know, the less we understand. I think we need to get some shut-eye before discussing anything else.” I answered, before walking to the cafeteria doors.

Ben suddenly ran up and tapped me on the back.

“By the way, Luna, I want you to have this. It’s not much, but if we get out of here and never see each other again, I want you to know that I care for you a lot. Like, a lot. Like, more than the normal kind of caring. A shitload.” Ben said, laughing in a weird, serious sense.

I looked at the item Ben placed in my hand. It was an amulet with a weird kanji on it.

“That’s the Kanji for good luck. I found it on an expedition in an ancient Shinto shrine back when we were in Japan. I just now remembered I had it on my at all times.” Ben said softly, closing my hands around the item with his own hands.

I looked at him, and on instinct, I threw my hands around his back and hugged him.

“I promise, we’ll all get out of here together. All 6 of us.” I said.

“How about a kiss to... seal the deal?” Ben whispered into my left ear, laughing at his terrible pun.

I pushed him away from me immediately, since things were starting to get weird.

“Pervert. I’d bash your face in if this wasn’t a killing game.” I spoke up, blushing angrily.

“Aw, your blushing face is cute.” He immediately replied, imitating a girly swoon.

“I-I am not blushing! Ugh, you’re so annoying, I’m going back to my dorm. Fucking moron.” I shouted as I walked out of the room, hearing his laugh from halfway down the hall.

Which is fairly said, now that I start to think about it.

The last words I ever said to him were ‘fucking moron.’

End of Day 10


	13. Beginning of Day 11

The next day was longer than expected. Not in the fact that it wasn’t fun, even though it really wasn’t, but in the fact that everything that happened that day shocked each of us to our core. 

I wanted to head off to the cafeteria first thing in order to meet up with the group to investigate the photographs Monokuma gave us. I wasn’t feeling that well, so I quickly put on some blue jeans and a T-Rex T-Shirt and jolted off towards the cafeteria. 

The moment I arrived, I only saw 3 people, namely, Lydia, Johnathan, and Morgan. 

“Hey, Morgan, how’s Dakota doing?” I asked, curious to see how he’d respond.

“He’s still kind of out of it, sugar. But I need to check on him in a bit. Would ya mind accompanying me to the nurse's office, darling?” Morgan replied, standing up as if to head over.

I nodded my head, while also waving hello and goodbye to Lydia and Johnathan. On cue, we headed to the nurse’s office. The trip there was fairly silent, probably only because both of us were deep in thought. We didn’t know what would happen next, but we knew that it wouldn’t end how we expected.

Just like when we opened that door and found that Dakota had disappeared.

“What? What the… GOD DAMN IT.” I screamed, running off towards the cafeteria again.

“W-wait! Luna!” Morgan called out after me, but I was already too far away to respond. 

I nearly fell down the stairs before slamming open the cafeteria door. Not only did it break the door, but it scared the shit out of our two level headed friends.

“Holy shit, Luna! You scared me. What’s going on?” Johnathan spoke frantically, trying to find the moment's peace he had just a moment before.

“Dakota’s gone.” I said, gasping for breath between the two words.

“He’s… what?” Lydia spoke up, her eyes filled with shock that could be visible from space if the school itself wasn’t boarded up. 

“Missing. He’s not in the Nurse’s Office.” I continued, being able to catch my breath.

Morgan finally managed to come into the Cafeteria, before immediately passing out on the floor from exhaustion. 

“Is he okay, man?” Johnathan asked, staring at me directly.

“I’m going to say yes, but we have to find Dakota and...wait, where’s Ben?” I said, nearly overcoming my own shock before finding a new thing to be shocked about.

Lydia and Johnathan turned to each other, and then looked back at me. 

“I thought he was with you.” They both stated simultaneously.

Everyone looked at each other, until finally, we all heard a gunshot coming a few floors up. 

After a moment of feeling intense despair, we all ran up each floor, trying to find which room the sound was heard from. I headed towards the second floor, while Lydia and Johnathan ran up to the third floor. I was forced to carry Morgan with me, but I worked hard enough to find something at the same speed as the two people above me. 

After I had searched every other room on the second floor, I stood in front of the final room I had yet to search, Classroom 423. Slowly, I opened it. I was scared enough about what I might find that I didn’t know how to react when I had actually discovered it.

When I finally opened the door to Classroom 423, all I saw was Ben, lying on the floor, dead, and Dakota standing over him, holding a gun. It was at that exact moment that Morgan had woken from his slumber and screamed as loud as he could.

“I… know what this looks like… but promise me… you’ll find the killer.” Dakota cried, with eyes that looked like seattle during the rainy season. 

“Dakota… how could you?” I wanted to reply, but I couldn’t find the words to fill my mouth.

“I regret my actions… all of them… I could not protect the ones I cared the most for… so, I’ll join Quinn. I’m coming home… It’s my official… resignation…” Dakota said with the saddest eyes I had ever seen from anyone in this entire fucked up game.

I dropped Morgan, who had passed out again, and ran towards Dakota with all the strength I could muster… but even that wasn’t enough.

The trigger was pulled before I could do anything.

Dakota… died in front of me. 

The next few moments happened in a series of incredibly terrible timing. Once I finally made it to Dakota, Lydia and Johnathan had arrived on the scene. I was crying, holding Dakota in my arms, extremely sad and angry that I couldn’t save him. Lydia and Johnathan stared at me as if I had killed both of them, but then Morgan woke up a second time and started balling his own eyes out. I couldn’t hear the exact words, but they asked him what happened and he told them what he saw. As I continued to sit there crying, Lydia and Johnathan both finally came to a clear understanding of what the situation was, and started crying themselves.

To end the confusion of the incident, and start more confusion, the Monokuma announcement played. I didn’t pay attention as I was too busy… wetting my eyes. Suddenly, Monokuma appeared finally and showed us all the Monokuma file. 

I didn’t hear anything Monokuma said, but it seemed as if he was mocking me for what I was doing, while Lydia and Johnathan backed me up. Monokuma disappeared, and then johnathan pulled me away from Dakota.

I screamed as loud as I could, but it was no use. We had to wait a few minutes before I was finally calmed down enough to think rationally.

“... Sniff... “ I said, trying to curb my remaining sadness.

“We know it was a sad moment, but we still have to figure out who killed Ben.” Lydia said, hugging me before getting serious again.

“I... know. I know the situation…” I replied once more, standing up to help out.

“Are you sure you’re okay, sugar?” Morgan asked, worried about my condition.

“I can’t back down from a challenge… I’ll help in any way I can.” 

Full of determination, I proceeded into the room once more with a heavy heart, but stuck through it just to figure out what exactly happened. 

(Start of Deadly Life)

First thing I did, since I missed it entirely, was take a quick look at the Monokuma file. The time of death wasn’t on it, but it did give us the murder weapon and the cause of death. The cause of death was a bullet to Ben’s head, and the murder weapon was a Smith and Wesson model 29. The name sounded fairly familiar, so I decided to check Dakota’s corpse.

“Just as I thought,” I said out loud while scavenging through Dakota’s shirt and pants, “his gun is the same model as the murder weapon… but there’s only one bullet missing.”

“One Bullet? So he used it to shoot Ben dead, man. Case Closed.” Johnathan said a bit too calmly, like a volcano that’s just a bit further off from erupting than one that just erupted.

“But if he only used one bullet, and used that bullet to shoot Ben, he couldn’t of shot himself, then there would be two bullets missing.” Lydia replied immediately, catching the fault in Johnathan’s argument.

Johnathan then put his finger in his ear and twisted it around.

“Yeah, I guess you have a point.” He replied back, keeping his cool.

“But that brings up an interesting point, darlings, why didn’t Monokuma give us the Monokuma file for Dakota?” Morgan asked suddenly, confused.

“Does he think I’m the Monokuma file?” I yelled, hoping to get a response from Monokuma.

Sadly, there was no reply. Almost like he was avoiding the question. 

“Anyway, we should check around the room. There might be another clue in here.” I said, starting to search around the room.

After a few minutes, we got back together and showed everyone else what we had found. Some lint, a penny, and a piece of paper. 

“I don’t know why lint would be a major component in any case, darlings.” Morgan spoke sadly, throwing the lint into the nearest trash can.

“I… uhh… found a penny or something. 1998. Dunno if that’s, like, helpful or anything.” Johnathan continued, confused on the assignment. 

“I found a piece of notebook paper on Ben’s body. I haven’t read it yet.” Lydia spoke, cheery from the idea that she found something useful.

Cheery as she could be, anyway.

“Read it out loud, please.” I asked Lydia calmly.

“In french, german, hindu, greek, or english?” Lydia asked back sarcastically.

“Did you read a book on sarcasm or something? In english, idiot.” I said, a bit angry that we even wasted a few second not getting to the bottom of this. 

“Geez, someone… oh, right. Two people are dead now. My bad. Anyway, the note’s a riddle, most likely written by Ben. it says, ‘When the sun shall fall to night, the amulet shall lead thy holder to the light. When Officer and Scientist become only gore, the clues shall lead to the masterminds door.’ Does this mean…?” Lydia spoke after finishing reading what was written on the paper, which wasn’t as complicated as it seemed to be.

“Ben knew that he and Dakota would fall to the darkness?” Johnathan asked immediately, still confused.

“Hold on… the sun shall fall to night, the amulet shall lead the holder to light… the sun… the son… fall to night… fall tonight… that’s it! Ben died last night, that’s why the time of death was missing!” I shouted, unknowingly letting my voice be heard by Monokuma. 

“Wait, but Dakota was in bed all last night. I was, like, next to him. Didn’t even really fall asleep, either.” Johnathan confirmed, trying to ease our suspicions of him. 

“There’s another part of this that sounds weird. ‘The clues shall lead to the masterminds door’, what clues? Are there other things we haven’t seen that would lead us to the mastermind?” Lydia asked the group, concerned about the message. 

“This room also seems to be lacking in… well, everything. There’s no blood, which is weird given the fact that there should be since both of them were shot in the head. This doesn’t make any sense…” I quickly continued from Lydia’s point.

“Darlings, I think I know why there’s no blood… this entire classroom… is bloodproof.” Morgan quickly replied to my unusual statement.

“What the fuck are you on about, dude?” Johnathan replied.

“Lots of tragic accidents on the walkway, sugar. Lots of tragic accidents.”

I sighed heavily, but felt the floor. There was definitely a weird feeling to it, as if it was meant to absorb any liquids spilled onto it. I stood up, ready to confirm Morgan’s quarry when suddenly, the intercom came on. 

“Ding dong, bing bong! Time is up! I’ll give everyone a 10 minute time to get to the elevator before the trial, just in case there’s another room you need to check, but get here in 10 minutes or less!” Monokuma yelled through the intercom. 

“Hey, I think we should check in Ben’s room first.” Lydia told me upfront.

“Fair point. I also want to know… what happened to Fumiya?” I asked Johnathan, who was in the Nurse’s Office with both Fumiya and Dakota all night.

“I… huh. I should go check. I didn’t see her there last night.” Johnathan said, running out of the room quickly.

“I’ll go to Dakota’s room, see if there’s anything in there that’d clear this case up.” Morgan said, also running off.

I turned to Lydia and grabbed her arm, taking off towards Ben’s dorm room. By the time we got there, we only had 5 minutes left, so we had to search quickly. First thing I found was Ben’s motive book from the first case, while Lydia found the yearbook Ben apparently had.

“Alright, this seems important. His motive book.” I said out loud, turning pages quickly. 

“This yearbook is weird… there’s a ton of words in here. Specifically of feelings towards people who have died. Enoch was the Ultimate Jackass, but was his best friend because he felt out of the loop. Everyone hated his puns, so apparently he hated… everyone. Except for two people. You, and Enoch.” Lydia spoke, reading the memos written close to everyone else's pictures.

“This motive… he… he only uses puns to cope with the death of his sister, who constantly did the same thing. It says in here that… his sister died on an expedition, so he took over her profession and became the Ultimate Archaeologist to make his sister proud… wow, he really cared about her…” I said, starting to cry a bit.

3 minutes left. We figured out everything in here, so we decided it would be best to head off to the elevator… except, right before we walked out, a video started playing on a laptop.

“Hello? Can anyone hear me?” The voice on the laptop called, sounding exactly like Ben.

I turned to Lydia, and we immediately moved to the laptop to watch the video.

“If anyone is watching this video, I’m dead, and the killer was framed. I believe the mastermind is going to execute Dakota Stantz because he figured out something they didn’t want anyone to figure out. He found a way to escape, and the only way is through the Mastermind’s headquarters. Once the trial starts, do NOT suspect Dakota Stantz. Do NOT get him executed… the real mastermind is the one you should be executing. They’ll find me… this is no laughing matter, but I need to get this off my chest. Luna, if you’re hearing this, you need to… shoot… a hole into each contradiction, and I’m sorry. I remembered everything, that’s why I changed. Luna, even though I’m dead, I still want you to know that even through death, that I was always in love with you. Yeah, cheesy to bring that up now, right? Right when I’m about to die? I wish I could bring it up myself, but…”

Before Ben could say anything else, the laptop flickered off. The video took 2 minutes. 

“We need to go.” I said, turning to Lydia.

We immediately ran straight to the elevator. With 5 seconds left to spare, we made it, and it seemed everyone else was waiting for us. Once again, the elevator ride was silent. It was too heavy, especially now knowing that Dakota shot himself before ever finding out what actually happened.

After stepping out of the elevator, Monokuma sat in his large chair, waiting for us to take our place for the class trial.

“Geez, what took you all so long? You had me waiting for 10 whole minutes!” Monokuma yelled.

“I know what’s going on, Monokuma. I’m going to promise you. I’ll discover the true murderer of Benjamin Right AND the mastermind!” I yelled, glowing with anger.

“Upupu! I can’t wait to see this interesting development.” He replied back, laughing the entire time.

“We can’t lose here.” Lydia said, chiming in with her own motivational words.

“Darlings, it’s been a pleasure getting to know you, but now’s not the time for you all to admire my flawless perfection… we’re going to kick this turbo trial into overdrive!” Morgan yelled out, subtly referencing some weird anime.

“I have never lost a single football game. I don’t plan on ever losing a class trial, either.” Johnathan shouted in a calm voice.

Everyone took their spots in the circle, and thus started the second to last trial I would have to face.

Class Trial Begins Here

Luna: First topic of discussion… what was the time of death? It was the only thing absent from the Monokuma file.

Lydia: Although we figured it out during the investigation, I believe it’s worth looking into.

Luna: Ben’s note reads, “when the sun shall fall to night, the amulet shall lead thy holder to light.” 

Johnathan: I’m kinda lost on all this weird-ass poetry stuff, man.

Lydia: Allow me to… translate the riddle.

Morgan: Did you just make a pun, honey?

Lydia: No. Can I continue now?

Morgan: Sure, sure, sugar. I would love to know what the riddle means.

Lydia: When the sun shall fall to night, this is just like Ben, a clever use of puns. The sun refers to son, which is himself, given that he somehow knew he would die. To night, without the space, is tonight. The full quote, itself, is the son shall fall tonight. 

Johnathan: So he’s the son, and he was going to fall the night he wrote the riddle, which is obviously last night.

Lydia: Precisely. However, the only two who have an alibi for that night are Dakota and Johnathan.

Luna: Although, I really should question this, but… wasn’t Dakota unconscious? If he was, then Johnathan could’ve left the room at any time…

Morgan: Valid point, darling.

Johnathan: Huh? What do you mean? Are you, like, implying that I killed Ben?

Luna: It’s certainly possible, is it not? “When Officer and Scientist become only gore, the clues shall lead to the masterminds door.” Dakota was the officer, and the clue of you having an alibi with Dakota lead us right to your door.

Lydia: Wait, you think Johnathan’s the mastermind?

Luna: It’s fairly likely that he could’ve taken Dakota’s gun while he was unconscious, shot Ben last night, and then replaced the bullet he used to shoot him with, and returned it to Dakota. Since the floor of the classroom absorbed liquids, there’d be no trace of evidence, and he could’ve shot the gun from far away to not have blood on his person or the gun.

Johnathan: When you put it like that, it does seem like I’m the killer, but how the hell would that prove I’m the mastermind?

Lydia: Ah, the video.

Morgan: Video? Sugar, I’m out of the loop. Enlighten me, girlfriends.

Luna: Ben recorded a video. He said Dakota was framed because he knew the mastermind had something they didn’t want anyone else to know. The least suspicious person here is Johnathan, since he’s almost always been calm. He also was the least shocked about the photographs and his regained memories!

Johnathan: I’LL GET THE TOUCHDOWN!

Luna: Do you have some sort of counter argument, dickhead?

Johnathan: Yeah. I don’t know what the fuck you’re even going on about with me being the least shocked about the photographs, because I was so shocked,I couldn’t even say anything! 

Lydia: Hey, Luna, you might need to back off. 

Luna: Huh? Why?

Lydia: I just remembered… Johnathan got angrier than ever after Monokuma talked about his missing memories. There’s no way he’d be the mastermind if he’d react like that.

Morgan: I agree with Johnathan on that front. He seemed the most pissed about it and stopped talking after learning about the Placebo on our memories. Now, honey, continue about the video.

Luna: I… I’m sorry everyone.

Johnathan: Yo, everyone makes mistakes, man. Don’t sweat it.

Luna: But I… haven’t made a mistake. Not since… wait…

Morgan: Huh? Luna, what’s wrong? 

Luna: Fumiya… I… I… I can’t forgive… 

Lydia: Someone broke Luna. I guess I’ll have to continue with the trial from here.

Morgan: So, anyway… anything else?

Lydia: There’s something strange about the Monokuma file. Everything seems to fall in place. The murder weapon, the time of death, the cause of death… everything points to Dakota. But Dakota has an alibi, Johnathan. 

Johnathan: Are you saying, the mastermind was framing Dakota for the murder of Ben?

Lydia: That’s precisely it. The video specifically mentioned that Dakota knew something the mastermind didn’t want him to know, therefore the only logical assumption to make is that the mastermind forced Dakota to think he killed Ben…

Morgan: There’s only one person who could do that, sugar, and we all know who that is.

Lydia: I CAN’T BELIEVE I MISSED THIS! The mastermind… it has to be…

Luna: VALENTINA VENZOR!

Lydia: Back to reality?

Luna: I… was half here, I promise. Lydia, how about you continue on? I’m not in my right frame of mind right now.

Lydia: Alright. If it gets us closer to figuring out the mastermind, then of course.

Morgan: So if the mastermind is Valentina, then…

Johnathan: She used her talent to trick Dakota into thinking he killed Ben?

Luna: But, Valentina supposedly died before coming here…

Lydia: That may be true, but do you all remember the killing game in Japan? Ben said something about it once… so I looked into it through the Library a few days ago. Apparently, Junko Enoshima killed her twin sister to create the illusion that she was also dead.

Johnathan: So are you implying that Valerie and Valentina swapped roles? But that doesn’t make sense, both of them died, dude.

Luna: I can’t see any reason to be skeptical about it, but… Dakota did say something about “She Wants Our Talents”. 

Morgan: Now I know that this is going to come as a shock, but what if Valentina never even set foot in this school? Did anyone even touch her aside from Valerie?

Luna: Enoch did, during that play you put on before he got murdered. 

Lydia: There was a play?

Morgan: Oh, that’s a good point, sugar. He was all “My Child” this and “Our Lord” that… that’s not how you play an atheist…

Johnathan: Man, it’d be a dream if we could ask Enoch about it right now.

Monokuma: What if I told you that you can?

Luna: Stop with the bullshit, you’d probably fake everything anyway.

Monokuma: But there’s a program hidden within this room that allows you to talk to any dead student… it was designed by the Ultimate Programmer in collaborating with the Ultimate Supernatural Investigator…

Lydia: How many useless talents do they let into this school?

Monokuma: Here, I’ll allow you to talk to one of them right now.

Violet: Huh. I’m glad that asshole Harold got executed, the sexist dick.

Luna: V-Violet?

Violet: Yeah, yeah. It’s me. The Ultimate Activist. I regained my memories after dying, so I remembered that I came into this school as the Ultimate SJW, but got better and became the Ultimate Activist.

Luna: I-I can’t…

Lydia: No, you can’t. That’s not Violet.

Violet: The fuck are you saying? Are you implying that your own Gender can’t come back from the dead? 

Lydia: No. I’m implying that you aren’t Violet… because we didn’t know anything about our missing memories until much later.

Violet: Tch. How does that prove anything? I can’t regain memories after being dead?

Lydia: According to all the books I read on the afterlife, no one regains their memories after dying. Not in any mythology, religion, or scientific research. It’s psychologically impossible.

Violet: Yeah, and being a computer program that interacts with the dead ain’t scientifically possible either, toots. 

Monokuma: Just so you know, once a dead person comes back, you can only speak to them for a full minute!

Lydia: If this program is accurate, then let me call on the one person who should be dead. Let me speak… to Valentina Venzor.

Monokuma: Wha-wha-wha whaaaaaaat? Uhh… I don’t think the connections working.

Luna: Hold up a second, we saw Valentina die, why would she still be alive?

Lydia: Because she isn’t alive or dead. She’s an Android.

Morgan: Hold the hell up, sugar, Androids don’t exist.

Lydia: They usually don’t… unless someone else could’ve built the body of the android, and then gave them the ability to steal other people's talents, such as… the Ultimate Mechanic.

Luna: Are you talking about someone who was in Ben’s yearbook?

Johnathan: This is the first time I’m even hearing about this yearbook.

Lydia: I looked through the book a bit in the elevator, because I figured it would be useful. At first, I thought only our class had stuff written about them, but then I searched more. It seems all of the 77th and 78th class had stuff written about them. I think… if I’m correct… Ben wasn’t solely the Ultimate Archaeologist.

Morgan: Sugar, you aren’t implying that he has two talents, are you?

Luna: Wait… the change in his personality after the photos… I get it now.

Lydia: Would you like to share with the class?

Luna: Heh… it makes so much sense. Why the mastermind would kill him after revealing the placebo twist… In the yearbook. He has another picture… with the 78th Class.

Morgan: What?

Johnathan: What the fuck?

Lydia: He was held back after failing as… the Ultimate Investigator, then continued as the Ultimate Archaeologist. If he had truly lost his memories, he would’ve remembered that he had two talents, but he only remembered our class, which means he would’ve only remembered his second talent.

Luna: So then… did the Mastermind take away our memories or what? I’m getting confused.

Lydia: Both.

Johnathan: That doesn’t make any sense.

Lydia: They kept in tact our school memories from our year because they didn’t know that we were supposed to be the class to take part in the other Killing Game.

Luna: I’M GOING TO PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE!

Lydia: Luna, you’re challenging me now?

Luna: Yeah, there’s no way in hell we were supposed to be the ones in the first killing game! That doesn’t even make sense! There’s just absolutely no record of it anywhere!

Lydia: JE SUIS DÉSOLÉ, MAIS C’EST FAUX!

Luna: Was that… french?

Lydia: It means “I’m sorry, but you’re wrong” in french. Anyway, there is a record of it. Ben’s yearbook.

Morgan: How does that help us at all?

Lydia: The 78th Class. Ben made a note that reads “Junko is going to take the next class and put them in a killing game solely for despair.” This yearbook was something I found in the library and kept since Maggie was executed. This edition also says that Ben’s talent was the Ultimate Investigator. Our class isn’t in here yet.

Johnathan: But then, how the hell did the dude fuck up?

Lydia: I… don’t know. But that’s irrelevent now, because we know that Junko took away our memories at the start of the school year. The memories of us meeting, but then… she got the wrong class. 

Luna: So the missing memories of us meeting, and the missing memories of us knowing who the mastermind is… are from two different events?

Lydia: Sounds about right. The placebo effect was placed on us so that we’d think that the two were connected and the rest of our memories were missing.

Monokuma: All this chatter is annoying me, please just get it over with so we can vote!

Lydia: Luna, this is going back to you. Win this one for us.

Monokuma: Alright, pull the levers who you think killed Benjamin Right!

End of Class Trial

With my memories back in order, I pulled the lever and voted for Valentina Venzor. The wheel spun around and around, until finally, every face landed on Valentina. But the next noise we heard wasn’t what we expected.

… It was the sound of us voting for the wrong person.

“Upupu! Too bad, so sad. It looks like, despite your intentions on being completely right that the current Valentina you knew being the Andriod, she isn’t the mastermind OR the murderer of Benjamin Right! You loooooose…” Monokuma laughed, gloating about his victory.

“Lose? No… no, that shouldn’t be possible… all the facts aren’t lining up… it has to be Valentina…” I said, angry with myself for actually losing a single match.

“But because I love you all so much, I’ll give you one last chance to guess correctly? I’ll even give you a hint! That hint…” Monokuma stuttered, shaking from head to toe, covering his short arms around his chest, before finishing with the hint, “... is that the mastermind likes to glomp their friends…”

End of Cliffhanger

Survivors Remaining: 4


	14. The Final Trial

I struggled to find the right name to throw out there. All of our lives depended on my answer. But, it was weird… it never said in the rules that Monokuma would kill everyone aside from the blackened in the class trial… was he never intending on killing the rest of us? I thought about this, when suddenly, everything snapped into place. Valentina being an android did make sense, but I don’t think she was the one who was stealing talents. The only two things I could think of that pointed towards the mastermind was Violet showing up, and the glomping thing. 

It left two people, Avalon and Valerie. Both of them could impersonate anyone, but… it can’t be Avalon. She can’t impersonate real people, and Valerie is the only person who has ever tried to glomp me. I don’t know all the details, but Valerie always said weird things.

“Valerie Venzor…” I spoke out loud, without even really thinking anymore heavily on it.

“Huh? But she was, like, executed already.” Johnathan replied, confused.

“No, she wasn’t. In fact, her execution was actually pre-recorded. She knew this was happening, so she shot her sister and filmed it as an execution when the time came around. Everything else would make sense, especially…” I trailed off, getting lost in thought about the entire thing.

“Valentina and her personality before here, right? In that memory everyone had, she was laughing and smiling. She wasn’t the cold-hearted asshole we knew during the game.” Lydia continued, catching my train of thought.

“And you know, Monokuma never revealed why or how she was killed when we first thought she was dead, because it didn’t look like anything killed her.” I finished off, staring at Monokuma to determine if I was correct in my assumption.

“Well now, well now, well now. heh. You finally got it, ya varmints! Imma do a come out of my little hidey hole and show to you the wonders of my maaaaaaarvelous plan!” Monokuma yelled in glee, as if he had turned into someone else.

Suddenly, Monokuma disappeared. Not in a cloud of smoke or anything, he just straight up disappeared. Then, to everyone's surprise, out popped the twin sister of the girl who we thought was the mastermind.

“Did ya miss me? I got a knack for secret exits thanks to my good pal Harold Whodoni! Dude was on FIYA!” Valerie shrieked loudly, hitting all of our ears in a way that actually hurt physically and not just emotionally.

“You set this entire game up? Why?” I asked, trying to stay as calm because there’s no telling what Valerie’s true personality was.

“I’d tell ya, but you need to figure allllll of that out for yourself! So stop with the pity party, let Valerie take ya on the riiiiide of a lifetime, teehee… I’ll even join you as you find out all the secrets of Hope’s Peak College, like why the hell it’s called Hope’s Peak College! Pretty damn bland if you ask me.” Valerie ranted for a minute or so, before hopping off the chair that she was standing on as the replacement for Monokuma.

“... I really want to be angry right now darlings, but everything is confusing me.” Morgan stated, in some kind of weird cross between confusion and anger.

“Oh, yeah, I should probably explain why I’m even alive right now, lol,” Valentina replied before coughing into her hand loudly to make sure everyone was listening, “I totally recorded that execution ahead of time. Girl who died wasn’t me, it was the real Valentina Venzor. Yup, yup, I toooootally shot her! But not for some stupid as shit reason like Junko for the sake of the game, naaaah, I don’t roll that way. I only killed her because I needed her talent to utilize the full understanding of her Brain Drain machiiine.” 

Everyone stared directly at Valerie, it was like her personality had not changed at all since she… well, died, I guess. Was she always this insane? I didn’t exactly have the time to ask, because we needed to leave and Valerie had already climbed on my back. If Ben were here, he’d probably say something stupid like, “That’s a lot of dead weight you’re carrying!”, and then someone would’ve punched him in the face. 

Regardless, we had finally left the trial room and stood outside the green doors, not knowing what to do afterwards.

“Aww, did y’all get lost and confused about what you’re supposed to be looking for? HA! I didn’t expect you four to even make it this far, shiiiit. This totally went against my bet, guess I just lost six grand smackaroonies.” Valerie started complaining, which confused everyone.

“What do you mean, we weren’t supposed to survive?” Lydia quickly asked.

“I thought Luna would die first or something. Morgan should’ve died ages ago, Johnathan should’ve died instead of Enoch, and You, Lydia… well, I was actually right. I knew the bookworm in ya would clear all the trials, and it was faaaaabulous!” Valerie yelled cheerfully.

“Does anyone else feel like we should be hating her with every fiber of our being, but we just can’t? She seems a bit… far too innocent.” Johnathan said, jumbling up his wording.

“That’s what my family told me riiiiight before I murdered them in cold blood! I’m just too adorable that no one could think of me as evil! I’m too cute. Don’t ya think so, Luna, baby? Well, do ya, punk?” Valerie replied in a completely sarcastic tone.

“Please stop, like, everything and tell us what we’re supposed to do now.” I said, sighing loudly and wishing for the day to end so we can get out of here.

“No, no, no! That isn’t how this works! I can’t help you unless I make a deal! How about, if you discover all the mysteries of this college, I let ya walk out of here with no consequences for anything! I’ll even tell you about what really happened to your siiiiiblings!” Valerie yelled all cutesy.

“You know about Luthor?” Johnathan immediately shot up.

“Xiaosi Quan...I’ll find you eventually, my darling bro!” Morgan spoke in a more male tone than he’s ever done before.

“Even Luna’s sister! I mean, you totally thought she committed suicide, but she just left and stuff. I know where she is~ I know where she is~” Valerie laughed in a singsongy voice.

“Don’t fuck with me. I saw my sister die.” I snapped back in an instant.

“But… your sister died during the time Junko-chan took away your memories. What a vile woman, she’s wooooonderful!” 

“Don’t listen to her, Luna, she’s clearly screwing with all of us.” Lydia replied, trying her best to ignore everything that was going on.

“If I was screwing with you, how would I know exactly where they are? I can safely say that Johnathan’s bro and Morgan’s bro are both in the exact same place, the Testing Bureau for Rare Praxeology. Woooow, that’s a mouthful!” Valerie sighed, still trying to find cheer in her sentences.

“Testing… what? Am I hearing you correctly?” Johnathan asked, cleaning out his ears.

“It’s not important or anything, but we need to moooove. I unlocked all the doors before revealing myself, so you need to get the fuck going, you nerds!” Valerie screamed while sitting atop my shoulders.

“Jesus, why don’t you just tell us where we’re going, then?” I asked in a fairly annoyed tone.

“Okay, you need to check all the dorm rooms, all the lockers in the locker room, all the books in the library, all the photographs in the art room, and finally, every single paper in the main office. Now GET THE FUCKING MOVE ON, YA BLUBBERING IDIOTS! Heehee.” Valerie replied, with the most unusual list we’ve seen.

“Well, I’m not looking through every single book in the library or anything of the sort, sugar.” Morgan immediately replied, annoying by the thought of having to look through several thousand books.

“Not really a problem. I can read 500,000 words a minute, so I’ve pretty much finished the entire library. There’s a lot of really good books, but nothing really worth mentioning.” Lydia responded, even though the gesture wasn’t directed at her.

“500,000 words a minute? Are you making that up?” I asked suddenly, confused as all hell.

“Not really. I spent pretty much my entire life reading. The only electronic devices I had in my house were microwaves, refrigerators, and ovens, so I didn’t have much else to do. It’s not like I had friends, either…” Lydia continued, replying to my question as well as explaining her own story.

“Oh my sweet summer child…” Morgan cried a bit, giving Lydia a hug.

Lydia, however, shook him off and started walking towards the 4th floor, where the main office was. We all followed her, assuming she knew something was up. However, I was carrying a 140 pound sack of shit on my back, so I couldn’t go as fast as I needed too. After awhile, we all finally made it to the main office. There was a weird clicking sound coming from behind the door, so with the force of a boulder being thrown off a cliff with one arm, I swung open the door.

Mental note, I really should stop trying to remember Maggie’s stupid similes. But on the other note, the only thing in the office was a giant machine with two chairs and helmets.

“What the flying fuck is that, and how the hell did it get there?” I ask, feeling a huge weight jump off my shoulders.  
The weight was Valerie, if you didn’t already know.

“Oh this ol’ thang? It’s nutting more than a knowledge transference device. I can suck the talent out of anyone, even if they’re dead! It’s super great, I can even do it on living beings, though it leaves them in a coma… WHO WANTS TO TRY IT FIRST! I NOMINATE LUUUNA!” Valerie shrieked in excitement, happy to see whatever it was that was in front of us. 

“No.” I replied immediately. 

“That’s a downer. I guess I could deal with Lydia, that 500,000 words a minute thing could come in haaaaandy~.” Valerie vocalized, quickly changing her mind.

“No, as well.” Lydia replied instantaneously. 

“You’re a bunch of party poopers. Even still, this doohickey is really all you need to see to understand basically everything that’s even going on. Sooo… who wants ta start the class trial, right here, right now???” Valerie said happily, drool running down her mouth.

“Are you serious? What kind of fools do you even take us for? We still need to check the locker room and stuff.” I replied, voting against the idea of starting the class trial so quickly.

“We have the yearbook, we have the giant machine, we still need to check the lockers and Valerie’s dorm room.” Lydia quickly added. 

“Oh! Oh! OOOHH! How about you split up? Two on two! Oh, oh, OH, Male and female partners? Johnathan could go with Luna and Morgan can go with Lydia. Aahhhh my shipping meter is going off the chaaaarts!” Valerie screamed in utter glee, not even remotely trying to hide her personality.

“Lydia, I’m going with you.” I said immediately, grabbing Lydia’s hand and taking off towards the dorm rooms.

“I can deal with Yuri and Yaoi, that just makes the ships even more unlikely! KYAAHAHAHA I CAN FEEL THE PASSION ALREADY, DOING THE DIRTY WORK IN THE MASTERMINDS BEDROOM!” Valerie screamed very, very loudly.

Even though I could barely even hear them due to Valerie’s constant lewd meter going off, I could tell that Morgan and Johnathan went to the Locker Room somehow, and Valerie decided to follow them. Once they were out of sight range, we headed straight to Valerie’s dorm room. After several minutes, we finally made it. I tapped the door, and it opened up regardless. 

“I’m very confused.” I started, heading into the room. 

Lydia stopped at the door, looking around the room. It was filled with the most girly things imaginable combined with the darkest shit anyone could ever think possible. There was a really bright pink ribbon hanging above a really pink bed that read, in pink, “kill yourself.” There were knives on the walls covered with Glitter, a gigantic katana that looked like it was branded by Hello Kitty, and several voodoo dolls styled after barbie.

“What the holy fuck did I just step into?” I shouted after seeing the entirety of the room be completely out of the realm of my expectations.

“I think we can safely say that’s she’s clearly insane.” Lydia replied instantly.

I gathered my courage and started looking for things around the room. I found a lot of things I never wanted to see in my life, such as a switchblade dildo. I don’t know what the fuuck kind of purpose a switchblade dildo even had, but I decided to take note that she had one in the first place. After awhile, I found her first motive, but all it said was “I am the Mastermind”. Not even the words leading up to the page itself appeared, like in the other books. 

“This room is making me want to throw up.” I spoke after finishing my investigation.

“There’s a hidden door in the closet.” Lydia said.

I immediately darted towards the closet and opened the door. There wasn’t even anything in it, just another door, so I had to open that door.

The moment the door became open, there was a large computer with many monitors sitting in the room itself. Nothing else. We took a couple steps forward and looked at the monitors. We could see all the places. The locker rooms, where Valerie was annoying the shit out of Johnathan and Morgan, as well as us in the dorm room, and the machine in the Main Office. For some reason, we didn’t see anything that looked like a morgue or a place to store bodies, which made me wonder what happened to all the people who died.

“I think this is more than enough evidence to understand what’s going on here. I don’t think this trial will be that complicated, either.” Lydia spoke, remaining calm in the face of danger.

Nodding in agreement, we decided to head back to the Locker Room to see what Johnathan and Morgan found. After a few minutes, we made it back to the fourth floor. The moment we started walking towards the locker room, we heard a really loud shriek that could’ve only been Morgan, so we ran immediately.

“R-r-r-r-RAAAAAAAAT!” Morgan yelled loudly, startled by everything.

“I’m… not sure what you mean…” A lower, but more mature voice that didn’t fit with the rest of voices we had heard so far came from the room.

Once we got there, we noticed that Valerie had left, but our teacher managed to get better.

“It’s been a long day. I almost thought you all forgot about me.” Ms. Fumiya started, trying to get a grasp on the situation. 

“Someone thought you died or something. That’s probably why. We’re sorry, sensei.” Johnathan spoke, attempting to calm her down. 

“What happened to my other students?” Ms. Fumiya asked, curious about what happened after we dug her out of the wall. 

We proceeded to explain everything that happened. The game, the mastermind, everyone who died, and the clues we found so far.

“So that’s basically it. There’s some other stuff we still don’t know, like the state of the outside world, but we might remember if we think about it hard enough.” I finished, leaving my final thoughts for Fumiya to understand.

“Oh, yeah… about the outside world… it’s trash. Like, it’s absolute garbage. The Tragedy spread to america awhile ago, although not because of Junko. I assume Valerie did it. She did it while you were all trapped in here.” Ms Fumiya said, yawning between words.

“You can’t just drop a bombshell like that on us and not explain it, dude!” Johnathan yelled angrily.

“I found the escape. Kill Valerie or whatever, and I’ll show you. I… am not allowed to be in the class trial, as it’s apparently only for the participants in the killing game. I’ll just wait for you all to win. Good luck, guys. Kick some ass. Especially you, Luna. You might have nearly lost, but now you have a reason to keep fighting. Woo. Alright, I’m out.” Ms. Fumiya spoke, crawling back into the hole she came out of.

“So anything interesting in the lockers?” I asked, trying to turn our attention away from Ms. Fumiya.

“Nah. Nothing we didn’t already know. I guess that means there’s nothing left, dudes.” Johnathan replied, cleaning out his ear again.

“I do have one more question for both of you, though. Morgan, when we first met, you said you only had male clothes.” Lydia quickly asked, trying to understand something.

“Huh? Did I? Uhh… Oh, right, sorry, sugar, but I did do a lie.” Morgan replied.

“Johnathan… why do you keep cleaning out your ears like, all the time?” Lydia asked Johnathan, turning her attention to him.

“Huh? Oh shit, I am. I don’t even notice. Just a human instinct or something.” Johnathan shrugged, not even knowing himself.

“Last thing, why did neither of you ever mention a brother until Valerie brought it up?” Lydia stated as the final question.

“My brother is adopted, darling, and he’s been in jail for the past 5 years. He only just got out before this happened and came back to this school as the Ultimate Con Artist.” Morgan replied, clearly feeling uneasy about the question.

“My parents didn’t even want my brother, so they disowned him. He went on to win the Worldwide Chess Tournament and became the Ultimate Chess Player. Haven’t bothered remembering him until Valerie told us about it.” Johnathan yawned, remaining fairly calm about it.

But something about both of them remained unsettling for some reason. That’s when I remembered someone. Someone from the 80th Class. Aurelio Florence, the Ultimate Chemist. He got expelled from every high school in the country for blowing up their chem labs on purpose. We woke up in a chem lab, but it hadn’t been exploded within at that point. Did the 80th class ever come to the school?

Regardless, now wasn’t the time to think about that. We all agreed that we needed to head to the Class Trial room because we covered everything we needed too. It took a few more minutes and one last elevator ride, but once we got there, Valerie was waiting for us.

“Geez, what took ya guys so long? I’m staaaarving for some debates!” Valerie yelled. 

“I don’t know where to begin with that one. But, we can’t lose here.” I spoke up, trying to muster as much confidence as I could.

“For the future of mankind…” Lydia started.

“For the sake of all who died…” Johnathan continued.

“For the realization of what the hell is going on…” Morgan continued, obviously unable to think of anything else.

“We will beat you to the death!” We all shouted, getting into the circle to start the final debate.

Class Trial begins here.

Valerie: Oh, and just so you all don’t get confused, if you guys win, I’ll execute myself. If I win, I’ll execute all of you and steal your talents! 

Luna: What are the stakes here?

Valerie: Figure out what my plan is and what I did or whatever. I hate class trials. They’re so boring to watch. It’s so, so, SO much better to participate! I miss our group chats.

Lydia: Is this your honest to god personality? You don’t have, like, a fake one to use in the killing game?

Valerie: Whaaaaaaaat? I change voices, not personalities. 

Luna: Then why did Cole seem so afraid of you?

Valerie: Pffft. I punched him while talking like Avalon to get him confused, then revealed myself after he finally murdered the bitch! WOOT WOOT, 10 POINTS TO RA-VAL-CLAW!

Johnathan: Oh, fuck you.

Luna: So Avalon would’ve survived if you didn’t do that stupid shit?

Valerie: Hey now, I was hoping someone else would take out Cole. I didn’t expect he’d actually be a murder. That was a disappointment.

Lydia: Guys, we need to focus. We need to figure out what Valerie’s plan is.

Morgan: Darling, it’s pretty obvious, she wanted to steal our talents for some super duper secret science show or something.

Valerie: Nail on the head there, Queen!

Morgan: I will rip off your boobs so hard that your milk will lactate through burned skin and it’ll be so fucking painful that you’ll have to kill yourself to make the pain stop.

Valerie: EEEEEE! Even a Drag Queen can be lewd when the time is right. I wonder if I can make some Morgan x Valerie porn? AAAHHHH THAT WOULD BE TOO META STOP ME NOW!

Luna: Christ you’re stupid. 

Lydia: Anyway, yes, but what does her stealing talents have to do with her plan.

Johnathan: Fumiya-sensei told us that, like, the world was garbage. What if she was talking about that?

Valerie: I think Johnathan is going on the riiiight track to mastermind town! Next stop, LEEEEEEEEEWD!

Lydia: I don’t see the connection.

Johnathan: Picture this, she stole the talents to destroy america. Now picture what Fumiya told us.

Luna: I totally get it! She destroyed america with the talents she stole from the killing game for… wait, what’s the motive exactly?

Valerie: As if I’d give a shit about motive. I just did it to prove the point of the fact that I can do anything if I set my mind to it. Destroying america, building an android, faking my death twice…

Luna: I’M GOING TO PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE! What do you even mean, faking your death twice? You only died once!

Valerie: Gasp! Onee-chan, did you already forget? Your sister “committed suicide”, riiiiiight? HA! No she didn’t, I’m right here!

Lydia: Wait, what?

Johnathan: What the fuck?

Luna: Okay, yeah, no. You’re not my sister. No way in hell. 

Valerie: You wouldn’t be saying that if Junko didn’t steal your memories.

Luna: But I would’ve remembered it if I still had my memories from when I was young! 

Valerie: As if, we recoded your entire personality! You’re not even a fucking ultimate, you were brainwashed into thinking you were just the Ultimate Champion. You even lost the last trial! Woop woop, I’m on a roll!

Lydia: How would you explain the yearbooks, then?

Valerie: Rigged.

Johnathan: And the pictures?

Valerie: Totes rigged and stuff.

Morgan: What about Ms. Fumiya outright saying a few minutes ago that she was the Ultimate Champion?

Valerie: … Oh shit, my cover got blown open. KILL ME WITH YOUR ENTHUSIASM, QUEEN!

Morgan: Oh, don’t make me snap my fingers in a Z-Formation, darling.

Valerie: AHAHAHAHAAH SO SASSY! YOU’RE LIKE THE SASSY BLACK GIRLFRIEND I NEVER HAD!

Luna: So we’ve stabilized that I am the Ultimate Champion.

Valerie: Yes, but I’m still your imouto. Smiley face, Smiley face, wink!

Lydia: How? Luna’s sister hung herself. I feel like this was said somewhere before, but if you wanted to fake your death, I don’t think you would’ve chosen hanging.

Valerie: … Eh, a good charade ends with nothing but sadness.

Luna: So you were bluffing the entire time?

Valerie: Well, duuuuh. We don’t even have the same hair color. How would I even be related to you?

Johnathan: That was just a distraction.

Valerie: Johnathan, babe…

Johnathan: We never dated, and don’t you fucking try to say we did.

Valerie: Damn, Zero out of two, you guys are on a roll. 

Morgan: And, of course, we made zero progress.

Lydia: Well, we do know that she stole memories and made an android. But that makes me wonder… was Valentina even a real person?

Valerie: HEY! LET’S ASK HER!

Luna: Are you going to use that program again? We already proved it was fake.

Valerie: It’s actually not. I just didn’t want Valentina to reveal my identity, was all. Violet hates everyone for not trusting her, however. Here, I can prooooove it with Avaloooooon!

Avalon: Luna? Luna-chii? Is that you?

Luna: The hell are you doing, Valerie?

Valerie: I didn’t even do anything but call on your friend.

Luna: How do we even know that’s Avalon?

Avalon: Naked bath! Hey, Luna, if you die, could you die as the younger you and join me for a bath?

Lydia: Avalon would never really talk like that.

Avalon: Well, I do want to see you all again. I’ve been trying to find myself even after death. I’ve been so sad without any of you, but I’m glad I met all of you! Wee, friends!

Luna: Something doesn’t add up… Avalon, do you know who killed you?

Avalon: Huh? That’s coming up now? Well, no. Someone attacked me from behind, then I blacked out and now I exist in this plane of existence.

Valerie: Ohh, oh! I know what you mean. The violet program was totally faked by me, I have the Ultimate Programmer's talent. Poor Chihiro, died in the killing game…

Avalon: I love you all, everyone! You’re all my dear friends! Even you… wait, why is Valerie alive?

Lydia: She’s the mastermind of the entire game.

Avalon: Oh… well, I’m sure she didn’t mean anything by it, teehee.

Lydia: She most likely stole your talent after you died.

Avalon: Is she putting it to good use? I mean, she’s a dick for taking it and stuff, but I’m not alive… Oh, time is up! Bye, Luna-chii! Bye everyone!

Valerie: I ramped up the time limit to 5 minutes for the sake of this trial and stuff, just so ya know.

Johnathan: I want to talk to someone too.

Luna: Johnathan, we should first talk to Valentina. She’s the key to this entire thing.

Johnathan: … Quinn needs to know. Program, summon Quinn to the… however your thing works…

Quinn: Fucking hell, man, I was trying to chill in purgatory. The fuck are you summoning me for?

Luna: Purgatory?

Quinn: God Damn… yes. Yes, fucking Purgatory. It’s boring as shit.

Johnathan: Quinn, you don’t remember who killed you right.

Quinn: I mean, I shouldn’t. But like, it was probably that bitch Maggie. That anime was pretty fucking obvious.

Valerie: FUCK YOU, I MADE THAT ANIME!

Quinn: The fuck is a dead chick doing alive?

Morgan: She’s the mastermind, darling.

Quinn: I’M GOING TO MASTER MINE FOOT UP YOUR ASS IF YOU CALL ME DARLING ONE MORE FUCKING TIME!

Johnathan: She framed Dakota and caused him to commit suicide. He wanted to see you. His last words… were about him wanting to be with you, dude.

Quinn: …

Valerie: Someone’s in a purgatory pickle, aren’t they?

Quinn: Number 1, fuck off, asshat. 2, fucking hell Dakota. He was supposed to fucking survive, not see me. If I ever get the fuck out of Purgatory, I’m going to kick his ass back to heaven!

Luna: Alright, we need to settle this, call Valentina.

Quinn: Yeah, I need to fucking contemplate this shit for the next hundred of years or something. Thanks for telling me… bitches.

Valentina: I see you mastered the program, finally. Oh, look, Valerie’s here. Well, back in hell, we have a word for people like her.

Valerie: Ha! Good to see ya too, sis!

Valentina: Fuck off. Did you all know she’s the mastermind? She fucking killed me before her killing game even started. She’s been going on about it for years.

Luna: Valentina, we need to know… what is her goal?

Valentina: She’s lonely and shit, so from I understood when I analyzed her, is that she only wants to use the stolen talents to destroy the rest of the world, without being known as Junko. 

Lydia: She wants to… throw the rest of the world into the tragedy?

Valentina: Yeah. She’s always been like that. I mean, a fucking prick. She fucking shot me in the head and recorded it for the killing game, then apparently built an android version of me or some shit to fool all of you. Fucking cunt.

Valerie: These are all true facts, I can confirm because I am the Ultimate Fact Checker!

Valentina: I’m leaving the program. Kill her.

Valerie: Well, that was a nice chat. Love, love…

Luna: So, you planned on using all the stolen talents to destroy america?

Valerie: But not alone! You guys helped by killing each other! I mean, I totally destroyed the competition, but you all died giving me your ultimate talent! Although, all I really needed was the Ultimate Voice Actress, Ultimate Officer, Ultimate Psychologist, and Ultimate Champion, but all these other talents worked out wonderfully!

Luna: You don’t have me yet.

Valerie: But unless you can figure out how I did all that. I can’t lose. 

Lydia: The machine.

Valerie: …

Morgan: Hold on, sugar, why are you clamming up now? You’re the one who told us about the Brain Transference machine, right?

Johnathan: Yeah, she did.

Morgan: I did a good! Now, darling, get your hands all buttered up because I’m about to smack you flat as a pancake!

Valerie: …

Luna: The fuck is she doing?

Valerie: … HEHEHEHEHEHE.

Luna: Fucking hell…

Valerie: I didn’t mean how did I steal the talents, silly. I meant, how did I cause the end of the earth? I mean, you know it’s dead, right? If you even win, what good would it even do you? That earth is fucking trash, Wall-E level. You couldn’t fucking survive out there.

Lydia: This is starting to sound very familiar. 

Valerie: Not to mention, it’s not like anyone would give a shit about your talents.

Luna: … what?

Valerie: All the people out there are fucking dead. Even if you put your talents to use, they wouldn’t mean jack shit. Ultimate Drag Queen? No runways are left, you’re basically just the Ultimate Drag! Ultimate Quarterback? What good is a quarterback without a fucking team? What good is an Ultimate Translator with nothing to translate? What good is an Ultimate Champion if you don’t have anyone to win against? It’s all fucking pointless! Just give me your talents, and I’ll keep you in here, or I’ll just kill you all right now.

Luna: Talents… Pointless?

Johnathan: … fuck. If she’s right, I won’t have a team to lead to victory…

Morgan: No more runways? NO MORE RUNWAYS?

Lydia: I don’t want to reread the same books over and over for the rest of my life if there’s nothing left…

Valerie: HA! You’re just a bunch of fucking dumbshits, is what you are! If you want to truly succeed, just let me have your talents so I can finish off this planet!

Class Trial Break

Talent… pointless? I... don’t know… I don’t want to believe her, but if she is…

Wait, is that..? Who’s voice is that?

“Hey, Luna. What are you doing? Is your mind… in doubt?” The voice called out. 

Before I even realized what was happening, all the people who died suddenly appeared in front of me. I wasn’t sure if this was a vision or not, but I wanted to hear what they have to say.

The first figure that appeared to me… was none other than Ben.

“Hey, dig this… You’ve been doing amazing so far. You got this! You’re like a tree waiting to sprout, and look forward to victory. Who cares if no one else is there? We’ll exist if you believe! Take that program once you get out of there, I’ll be waiting…” He said, happily.

“Don’t you dare give up now! As an officer of the law, I am sworn to uphold the constitution, and destroying the world isn’t legal! Push through! To victory!” Dakota called out, his voice reaching my ears at the perfect tempo.

“I-I know y-you p-p-probably h-hate me for k-k-killing Avalon… but… V-v-valerie is in-insane… s-s-she tricked me… I c-c-can’t forgive her…” Cole spoke up, trying to comfort me even though I resented him.

“Luna-chii… I know we just got done talking, but I adore everything you’ve ever done for me, forbidden lover… hee, I know you don’t like it when I say that, but you helped me find myself for the first time, so please, for me, kick the masterminds tushy!” Avalon spoke, her voice circling my body.

“What in tarnation are ya doin’? That there mastermind screwed us all up like a pork bellied pig eatin’ slops through some’uns root canal… there ain’t neva a time when you can’t stop the victory train! I believe in y’all… but y’all gotta push through, ya hear me!” Maggie shouted loudly in her thick accent.

“The fuck are you stopping for? You’re a god damn Badger! Honey Badgers don’t give a shit about what people say about them! You can’t do shit? Bull fucking shit! You’re the best person to fucking do exactly that! So stop fucking feeling sorry for yourself.” Quinn screamed, trying to comfort me in the most Quinn way possible.

“My child, God has led you far along the path. It was unfortunate that all the other lambs had taken the time to fall into despair. Now, my child, I know that I was once the Ultimate Jackass, but that time has long since passed. Now, it’s time for the light of God to show you to victory!” Enoch prayed in the calm manner that he always had.

“Kill her.” Valentina’s words echoed in my mind, in remembrance of what she went through.

“Ha… I may have performed the ultimate escape act from your earth, but the performance is not yet over… For now it is the final act, and only you have the talent to pull off this last trick. The otherworldly Harold Whodoni commands you, Champion!” Harold chanted into my brain.

“You were the only person who even bothered to take the time to understand me. Not all those other sexist dickheads, just you. I’m glad I died knowing that one person even gave a shit.” Violet contributed, understanding the whole predicament.

“I once was in a video game exactly like what is happening now. The spirits of all the people who interacted with, including me. I… want to tell you that my stutter is gone. I’ve been working so hard in heaven, that I managed to make it back. Now, Luna… with everyone here, you need to reach out for the truth!” Jasmine spoke in the most comfortable voice she’s ever had around me, which made me drop a single tear into the endless abyss of darkness I found myself in after opening my eyes.

“Big Sister? It’s me, Riley Thates. I… want to apologize for the cowardly act I did. It was the worst mistake of my life… literally… you were always there, you loved me, and we had one fight, and… I think that I can finally live the rest of my life thanks to you. Take the program. I’ll always be here, with you. Let my soul combine with yours, and we’ll stop any enemy in your path!”

My sister’s floating ghostly body collided with me, and suddenly, everything wasn’t black anymore.

When I finally awoke, my body started glowing brightly. My white hair glowed with such intensity that it stopped Valerie in her tracks.

Class Trial Returns

Valerie: What the fuck is going on?

Luna: I’m back, and I’m going to stop you! It doesn’t matter if everyone's dead or if we can’t use our talents, what matters is that if you die, you can’t harm anyone else!

Valerie: What bullshit, even if there’s no one else to protect…

Lydia: If I can’t read books… If I can’t translate… what’s the point…

Luna: YOU’VE GOTTA PULL THROUGH! Lydia, the more you think like that, the more you think that your only purpose is through your talent, and that’s a lie! Your personality, your intellect, that’s more than enough to keep you going!

Lydia: … That’s a good point. Using my wits will keep me alive, and lead us to stopping the mastermind.

Valerie: Y-Yeah, but it’s not like your only goal in life is to stop me, right? There’s a life out of here! And it’s fucking terrible!

Johnathan: If I don’t have a team, I can’t lead them to victory. My talent is useless…

Luna: YOU’VE GOTTA PULL THROUGH! Johnathan… you’re not the Ultimate Quarterback to me. You’ve shown already that you can unite any team to take on anything. In my eyes, you’re not just the Ultimate Quarterback, but you’re also the Ultimate Leader.

Johnathan: Heh… when you put it like that, it actually makes a lot of sense. Fine, I’ll reach my goal no matter what!

Valerie: W-what? ARE YOU BELIEVING HER BULLSHIT? YOU’RE GOING TO DIE THE MOMENT YOU STEP OUT OF HERE!

Morgan: No more runways, no more pageants… my life is meaningless…

Luna: YOU’VE GOTTA PULL THROUGH! Morgan… your life isn’t meaningless. In fact, the sheer fact you’ve beaten all odds and lived to see the Mastermind proves it. Even if you act like a woman, you’re one of the best male friends anyone could ask for, and I’m sure your brother would say the same! If you ever want to see him again, then you’ve gotten pull through for everyone!

Morgan: … Best Friend? You know, sugar, they usually say Diamonds are a girl's best friend, so comparing me to a dazzling diamond, that… you’ve earned everything.

Valerie: No, no, no nonononono, what the fuck?

Luna: … How did you destroy the earth, was it? Simple. You stole the talent of several people. First off, you watched your sister test the machine that she built as the Ultimate Psychologist, then killed her and stole her talent so you could use it yourself. Next, Kazuichi Souda, the Ultimate Mechanic. You used his talent to build an android and create the fake Valentina to trick us. Junko Enoshima, the True Ultimate Despair and Ultimate Analyst. You stole her talents to create the perfect killing game and be crazy enough to go through with it.

Lydia: Sakura Oogami, the Ultimate Martial Artist. You stole her talent so that you could fight anyone you wanted.

Morgan: Harold Whodoni, the Ultimate Magician. Sugar, you stole his talent to create the illusion of making the world a better place before killing all of it off.

Johnathan: Enoch Breston, the Ultimate Pastor and the Ultimate Jackass. By combining the two abilities, you became the perfect propagandist and created a world in such utter turmoil that it was easy to destroy.

Luna: That’s how you did it, that’s how you ended the world. You saw us all through your computer screens, and figured out who you needed dead, then you set everything up according to your every goal. Some things didn’t turn out as expected, but you failed. 

Luna, Lydia, Morgan, and Johnathan: IT’S GAME OVER, YOU LOST!

Class Trial End

“Heh… fine. You’ve figured me out. I guess I have to keep my end of the bargain. But before I go, I just want to say something. My phone, it was like, totally Monokuma. I didn’t need him here, so he never came! I didn’t even use my phone at all! Haha! But like, whatever, I’m executing myself. Bye-onara!” Valerie said as she lifted a gun to her head and pulled the trigger.

The moment the gunshot was heard, she collapsed on the floor, not moving. She was actually dead. She wasn’t an android, there was blood. We won. It was over. 

“I’d declare victory but… that was anti-climatic.” I said after a few moments of silence.

“I wanted to kill her myself, dude.” Johnathan replied.

“Well, at least we have each other and stuff.” Lydia smiled, glad that we had all survived.

“Hey! Did you win yet?” A voice called from behind us.

As well all turned around, we saw Ms. Fumiya running up to us holding a computer program.

“Is that…?” I asked, stopping myself before figuring it out.

“Yeah, this is the program that can communicate with the dead somehow. Pretty Sci-fi, if you ask me. I’d love to draw something like that.” Ms. Fumiya yawned loudly.

“Everyone… apparently, they found their way to me. All those who died… even my sister. So I will not stop fighting. You know what? There’s something else we need to take care of.” I spoke, turning to the group that saved all our lives.

“Kick more ass?” Lydia questioned, smiling still.

“Save my brother?” Johnathan continued, trying to get to the bottom of what happened.

“Darling, I think I know what you’re going to do.” Morgan said, hugging me immediately.

“Yeah. We’re going to find the Testing Bureau of Rare Praxeology, but first of all… I want to introduce you all to someone very important to me.” I replied to everyone, turning towards the computer and tapping a few keys.

Afterwards, the light came on, and up came the face I really wanted everyone to see.

“Hi, everyone! I’m so glad I get to meet my sisters friends!” The face said, smiling happily.

“Ah, so you must be the person Luna cares about a lot.” Lydia spoke up, no longer worried.

“I hope we can get along!” Johnathan exclaimed.

“Honey, I hope that you understand that we all respect you so much for what you did, but tell us your name, please.” Morgan said gleefully, a smile appearing on his face for the first time in a while.

“Oh! I’m sorry, allow me to introduce myself,” The voice continued, “My name is Riley Thates, and I can’t wait to start this adventure with you all!”

To be continued… in Hope’s Peak America 2: Sayonara, Psychopaths.


End file.
